PRESIDENT 
WILSON 


BY 

DANIEL  HALEVY 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  FRENCH 
BY 

HUGH  STOKES 


NEW  YORK:  JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 

LONDON:  JOHN  LANE,  THE  BODLEY  HEAD 

MCMXIX 


COPYRIGHT,  1919, 
BY  JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 


Press  of 

J.  J.  Little  4:  Ives  Company 
New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE 


At  any  other  time  the  author  would  ask  in 
dulgence  for  presenting  to  the  public  such  a 
summary  work  upon  so  difficult  and  vast  a  sub 
ject.  But,  with  events  crowding  upon  each 
other  so  rapidly  that  we  can  scarcely  follow 
them,  information  can  only  be  conveyed  in  a 
hasty  and  improvised  manner. 

The  author  has  made  use  of  two  biog 
raphies  :  "Woodrow  Wilson,  the  Man  and  His 
Work,"  by  Mr.  Henry  Jones  Ford,  and  "Presi 
dent  Wilson,  His  Problems  and  His  Policy,"  by 
Mr.  H.  Wilson  Harris.  He  has  had  access  to 
the  fine  library  of  the  American  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  always  hospitable  to  workers.  He 
has  also  been  greatly  helped  by  former  col 
leagues  of  the  Bureau  des  Etudes  de  la  Maison 
de  la  Presse,  MM.  Othon  Guerlac,  Professor  of 
French  Literature  at  Cornell  University,  and 
M.  Michel  Beer.  They  have  assisted  him  with 
advice,  and  opened  for  his  benefit  archives 
which  are  extremely  valuable  in  the  study  of 
our  own  period. 

D.  H. 

October,  1917. 

r- 

442304 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I. — CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH   ....  9 

II. — ESSAYIST    AND    HISTORIAN,     1890- 

1902 ,     .  36 

III. — THE  PRESIDENCY  OF  PRINCETON      .  65 

IV. — THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW  JERSEY  84 

V. — THE  FIRST  PRESIDENTIAL  CANDIDA 
TURE in 

VI. — THE  PRESIDENCY:  REFORMS  .     .     .  135 

VII. — PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  WAR     .     .  154 

VIII.— TOWARDS  WAR:  DEEDS    ....  182 

IX.— -TOWARDS  WAR:  DOCTRINES  .     .     .  215 

X. — RE-ELECTION 231 

XL— WAR -254 


I — Childhood  and  Youth 


f~  "^HE  most  active  of  the  aristocracies 
which  take  the  lead  in  the  United 
States  of  America  is  formed  of  the 

"^  descendants  of  the  puritan  families. 
They  have  created  manners,  culture,  the  State 
itself.  Woodrow  Wilson  belongs  to  these 
families  by  double  kinship. 

His  grandfather,  James  Wilson,  came  orig 
inally  from  Ulster.  In  1807,  while  quite  a 
young  man,  he  disembarked  at  Philadelphia. 
He  was  a  man  of  the  people,  but  well  informed 
like  so  many  members  of  the  Protestant  sects. 
Setting  up  as  a  printer,  he  was  successful  in 
business.  In  1808  he  married  a  girl,  also  an 
Ulster  Presbyterian,  who  had  crossed  the  At 
lantic  with  him  in  the  previous  year.  Then, 
leaving  Philadelphia,  they  settled  in  Ohio  where 
pioneers  were  busily  founding  the  early  town 
ships.  James  Wilson  established  in  Ohio  a 
newspaper,  the  Western  Herald.  In  1832  he 
established  a  second,  the  Pennsylvania  Advo 
cate  of  Pittsburg.  Both  were  produced  with 
the  assistance  of  his  sons,  who  were  brought 
up  to  be  working  printers  as  well  as  publicists. 

9; 


10  "  president  Wilson 


This  Anglo-Saxon  humanity  assumed  its  prim 
itive  aspect  whilst  conquering  a  world  of  vir 
gin  forests  and  marshy  prairies,  of  mountains 
and  of  deserts. 

Be  strong  backed,  brown  handed,  upright  as  your 

pines, 
By  the  shape  of  a  hemisphere  shape  your  designs. 

Thus  taught  an  old  American  verse  that  the 
child  Wilson  had  often  heard  inculcated. 
These  lines  he  learnt  to  repeat. 

A  man  who  works  with  his  hands  must  ex 
plore,  discover,  clear  the  soil,  cultivate,  build, 
and  guard  his  domain.  The  same  type  of  man 
belonging  to  the  intellectual  classes  preaches, 
teaches,  publishes,  edits,  and  prints.  This  was 
the  case  with  the  Wilsons,  from  father  to  son. 
James  Wilson  died  a  man  of  consideration  and 
importance  in  his  State.  He  had  been  nomi 
nated  a  magistrate,  and  was  commonly  called 
"Judge  Wilson." 

His  youngest  son,  Joseph  Ruggles  Wilson, 
taught  in  the  universities,  becoming  a  pastor 
as  well  as  a  professor.  His  life  was  divided 
between  these  two  occupations.  He  married 
Janet  Woodrow,  also  of  Presbyterian  origin, 
her  father  being  a  Scottish  pastor.  In  this 
household  Thomas  Woodrow  Wilson  was  born 
on  December  28,  1856.  He  grew  up  in  a 


Childhood  and  Youth  11 

double  atmosphere,  American  and  European, 
in  the  somewhat  rude  freedom  of  the  new 
world,  in  the  already  classical  culture  of  the 
old. 

These  Puritan  families  were  by  no  means 
of  a  grave  and  frowning  temperament.  Their 
blood,  springing  from  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
was  Celtic.  It  is  a  very  brisk  strain.  England 
draws  many  of  its  public  entertainers  from 
Ireland.  The  Scotch  are  pre-eminent  for  the 
flow  and  beauty  of  their  speech.  Gladstone 
and  Carlyle  were  of  Scottish  race.  The  Rev 
erend  Joseph  Ruggles  Wilson  was  famous  for 
intellect  and  eloquence,  and  his  son  Woodrow 
Wilson  has  inherited  both  these  gifts.  They 
were  perhaps  increased,  or,  better  still,  devel 
oped  by  the  manner  of  life  in  those  southern 
states — Virginia,  Tennessee,  South  Carolina — 
where  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Wilson  followed  his  pas 
toral  and  professorial  career  and  educated  his 
children.  The  culture  was  often  very  ad 
vanced,  the  literary  taste  often  very  refined,  in 
these  southern  lands  ruled  by  an  old  and  rich 
rural  aristocracy.  Woodrow  Wilson  profited 
from  these  traditions  and  fortuitous  combina 
tions. 

I  cannot  find  in  the  stories  of  his  biographers 
any  characteristic  which  distinguishes  his  in- 


12  President  Wilson 

fancy  and  adolescence  from  those  of  children 
in  general.  He  was  a  young  Anglo-Saxon, 
well  gifted,  who  was  formed  and  strengthened 
in  the  traditions  of  his  race.  Like  many  oth 
ers  he  had  a  passion  for  the  sea,  and  wished 
to  become  a  sailor.  And  he  had  a  similar  en 
thusiasm  for  bodily  exercise,  in  which  he  ex 
celled.  He  had  little  taste  for  science,  but  on 
the  other  hand  a  great  inclination  for  reading, 
— historical,  philosophical,  and  literary.  Writ 
ing  became  his  dominating  interest,  and  this 
increased  and  did  not  change.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-one  he  became  a  member  of  the  edi 
torial  committee  \vhich  directed  a  magazine 
published  by  his  fellow  students  at  Princeton 
University.  At  twenty-two  he  was  the  sole 
editor,  and  carried  off  a  prize  for  literature 
with  an  essay  on  Pitt.  We  would  like  to  have 
young  Wilson's  judgment  upon  the  great  Eng 
lish  leader,  the  dictator  of  the  wars  directed 
by  England  against  revolutionary  and  Napo 
leonic  imperialism.  But  it  has  not  been  pos 
sible  to  recover  this  essay. 

Woodrow  Wilson  became  a  writer,  and  a 
political  writer.  This  was  his  true  vocation, 
in  which  he  commenced  his  career.  He  was 
young,  sagacious,  and  alert.  He  knew  how 
to  observe ;  and  matter  for  observation  was  not 
lacking.  From  his  earliest  days  he  was  sur- 


Childhood  and  Youth  13 

rounded  by  material  which  interested  him  and 
educated  his  mind.  Woodrow  Wilson  was  de 
veloping  in  the  Southern  States  at  the  moment 
of  the  great  crisis  of  his  country  in  the  nine 
teenth  century.  The  Southern  States  owned 
slaves.  The  Northern  States  had  none.  The 
Southerners  wished  to  keep  their  slaves,  and 
to  maintain — separate  from  their  civic  and 
family  life — an  inferior  race.  The  Northern 
ers  desired  to  limit,  even  to  suppress,  an  insti 
tution  with  such  grave  moral  and  social  incon 
veniences.  And  the  conflict  had  other  rami 
fications.  The  Southerners  defended  at  the 
same  time,  not  simply  a  servile  institution,  but 
the  right  of  each  state  forming  part  of  the 
United  States  to  govern  itself  in  accordance 
with  its  own  particular  laws.  They  withdrew 
from  the  North  and  formed  a  separate  Un 
ion.  The  men  of  the  North,  in  fighting  these 
seceding  states,  fought  not  only  for  the  free 
dom  of  the  blacks  but  also  for  the  intangible 
character  of  the  United  States,  the  solidarity 
and  the  future  of  this  state-union,  which  had 
been  founded  in  order  that  millions  of  men 
might  be  assured  a  peaceful  development  across 
the  full  extent  of  an  entire  continent.  The 
stakes  in  such  a  combat  were  immense,  and 
the  fight  was  carried  on  with  extreme  energy. 
The  war  of  the  Secession  lasted  four  years, 


14  President  Wilson 

from  1861  to  1865,  and  the  early  childhood 
of  Thomas  Woodrow  Wilson  was  shadowed 
by  the  tragedy.  Once,  at  the  age  of  four,  he 
was  playing  by  an  open  window  and  heard  the 
conversation  of  two  men  in  the  street  outside. 

"Have  you  heard  the  news?"  said  one. 
"Lincoln  has  been  elected  President." 

"Lincoln  President?"  replied  the  other. 
"There'll  be  war." 

These  solemn  words  so  impressed  the  child 
that  he  never  forgot  them.  There  was  indeed 
war,  and  a  terrible  war.  It  exhausted  men 
and  money.  Had  the  Southerners  been  victo 
rious  North  America  would  have  become  a  new 
Europe,  divided  into  rival  nations  and  con 
demned  to  the  enfeebling  fatigue  of  hatred 
and  of  conflict.  But  they  were  conquered,  and 
the  formal  unity  of  America  was  saved. 

Formal  unity,  let  it  be  said.  The  real  unity 
was  almost  wholly  to  be  created,  or  to  be  re 
created.  The  years  following  the  War  of  Se 
cession  were  equally  difficult  and  sad.  Amidst 
these  difficulties  and  this  unhappiness  Wood- 
row  Wilson  conceived  his  first  political  reflec 
tions.  Thoughts  were  still  in  revolt,  and  in 
stitutions  were  hardly  tested.  What  was  the 
value  of  these  institutions?  Europe  had  ad 
mired  them,  America  was  vain  of  them.  Per 
haps  it  had  been  wiser  to  admire  the  excellence 


Childhood  and  Youth  15 

of  the  civic  habits  which  distinguished  the 
English-speaking  populations,  the  happiness  of 
a  people  for  whom  political  shocks  were  very 
diminished  by  reason  of  the  resources  and  in 
finite  immensity  of  the  territory  across  which 
they  were  scattered.  The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  has  some  original  and  useful  fea 
tures.  For  example,  the  Supreme  Court  which 
has  ended  so  many  conflicts  and  the  happy  and 
novel  federal  arrangements.  But  this  Consti 
tution,  on  the  other  hand,  is  an  ingenious 
school  exercise  composed  by  some  of  Montes 
quieu's  pupils.  Montesquieu  had  explained 
the  rare  virtues  of  the  English  constitution  in 
its  division  of  power,  resulting  in  a  liberating 
strength.  Executive  power  is  separate  from 
legislative  power;  the  two  Houses  and  the 
King  counter-balance,  holding  each  other  mu 
tually  in  check,  exercising  one  upon  the  other 
an  incessant  control  which  blocks  any  attempt 
at  tyranny/  The  American  colonists  wished 
to  forestall  all  tyranny,  and  Montesquieu  was 
their  advisor.  They  maintained  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  States,  and,  in  the  federal  gov 
ernment,  they  introduced,  and  multiplied,  in 
dependent  wheels.  Judicial  power  had  its 
proper  source  and  independence;  in  the  same 
manner  the  presidential  power,  and  that  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  and  also  of  the  Sen- 


16  President  Wilson 

ate.  The  House  and  the  Senate  voted  the  laws 
but  had  nothing  to  do  with  their  execution. 
The  President  carried  them  out  with  the  as 
sistance  of  his  chosen  ministers.  The  minis 
ters  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  making  of  the 
laws.  They  received  them  ready  made  as  a 
manager  receives  the  orders  of  his  master. 
The  President  could  veto  a  law  voted  by  the 
Congress.  But  if  the  two  chambers  upheld  it 
with  a  majority  of  one-third  the  President  was 
bound  to  accept  and  execute  it.  These  con 
flicts  have  been  by  no  means  rare.  The  Con 
stitution  appears  to  have  been  made  to  provoke 
them,  and  to  render  them  bitter.  The  Amer 
ican  President  does  not  spring  from  the  cham 
bers  as  does  the  French  president.  He  is 
found  amongst  the  people,  and  it  very  fre 
quently  happens  that  he  does  not  belong  to  the 
party  dominating  the  chambers.  The  whole 
machinery  has  been  ingeniously  built  up  for 
the  destruction  of  power  and  the  annihilation 
of  government.  It  is  the  masterpiece  of  the 
political  philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
During  the  War  of  Secession  the  two  parties 
corrected  the  faults  of  their  traditional  poli 
tics  by  raising  dictators.  Lincoln,  elected 
President  by  the  North,  was  an  admirable  dic 
tator  with  authority  and  prudence.  But  upon 
the  return  of  peace,  and  with  Lincoln  assas- 


Childhood  and  Youth  17 

sinated,  the  old  institutions  regained  their  em 
pire  and  displayed  their  weakness.  The 
Southern  States  had  to  be  reconciled,  their  re 
turn  to  freedom  required  regulation  without 
too  much  delay.  In  the  midst  of  an  extreme 
disorder  wisdom  and  coolness  were  very  nec 
essary.  The  two  houses  were  of  one  opinion, 
the  President  of  another.  The  chambers 
looked  for  increased  vigour  and  further  ven 
geance,  the  President  desired  continued  indul 
gence  and  firmer  union.  Congress  refused  to 
listen  to  the  cautious  warnings  which  came 
from  President  Johnson,  and  the  President  op 
posed  their  laws  with  his  veto.  Congress,  be 
ing  master  of  the  laws,  insisted  upon  them. 
President  Johnson,  being  master  of  the  exe 
cution  of  the  laws,  busied  himself  in  destroy 
ing  them.  He  had  his  following  in  the  coun 
try.  He  travelled  from  town  to  town,  making 
speeches,  and  insulting  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  a  body  he  described  as  "hanging  on 
the  verge  of  government."  The  House  ac 
cused  him  of  High  Treason.  The  Senate,  be 
ing  the  judges  of  the  case,  acquitted  him.  Dis 
order  followed,  whilst  the  country  awaited  a 
promised  reconstruction.  In  the  South  the 
massed  negroes,  under  the  direction  of  political 
adventurers,  seemed  to  threaten  the  civilisa 
tion  even  of  the  old  states  of  Virginia  and 


18  President  Wilson 

Georgia.  In  the  North  the  demobilised  sol 
diers  attached  to  the  victorious  party  cried  for 
help  and  spoils  after  the  war.  Congress  voted 
them  extravagant  pensions,  offices  were  dis 
tributed  as  rewards,  and  demoralisation  seized 
all  the  services  of  the  State. 

Such  were  the  facts  which  furnished  mate 
rial  for  the  reflections  of  the  youthful  Wilson 
in  and  about  his  twentieth  year  (1876).  A 
book  must  be  mentioned  which  added  to  the 
facts  and  quickened  the  reflections,  namely, 
Bagehot's  essay  on  The  English  Constitution. 
Bagehot  was  a  banker  who  devoted  his  leisure 
to  political  authorship.  He  endeavoured  to  find 
the  veritable  springs  of  this  famous  and  deeply 
studied  Constitution.  He  attacked  Montes 
quieu's  ideas,  showing  them  to  possess  neither 
foundation  nor  reality.  He  was  strongly  per 
suaded  that  the  function  of  power  is  action, 
and  that  action  is  possible  only  if  energy  be 
concentrated.  Montesquieu  had  shown  how 
energy  was  dispersed  in  the  English  constitu 
tion,  and  had  praised  this  aspect.  In  contra 
diction  to  Montesquieu,  Bagehot  had  discov 
ered  and  praised  a  concentration  of  energy. 
He  did  not  ignore,  nor  did  he  detract  from,  the 
peculiarly  English  utility  of  the  royal  power. 
He  was  in  no  sense  a  jacobin.  But  he  saw  in 
the  practical  constitution  of  the  English  state 


Childhood  and  Youth  19 

a  Chamber  which  had  power,  and  in  this  Cham 
ber  a  party  which  had  a  majority.  And  this 
party  was  able  to  nominate  a  prime  minister, 
who  selected  his  collaborators  and  governed 
with  their  aid.  The  result  was  what  Bagehot 
called  "cabinet  government."  "The  Ameri 
cans  of  1787,"  he  wrote,  "thought  they  were 
copying  the  English  Constitution,  but  they 
were  contriving  a  contrast  to  it.  Just  as  the 
American  is  the  type  of  composite  govern 
ments,  in  which  the  supreme  power  is  divided 
between  many  bodies  and  functionaries,  so  the 
English  is  the  type  of  simple  constitutions,  in 
which  the  ultimate  power  upon  all  questions  is 
in  the  hands  of  the  same  persons." 

The  youthful  Wilson  read,  observed,  and 
thoroughly  grasped  the  lesson  taught  by  books 
and  facts.  His  character  was  one  of  author 
ity.  Muddle  was  repugnant  to  him.  His  in 
telligence  was  of  a  decisive  nature;  he  loved 
to  reason  matters  out  to  a  conclusion.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-three  he  published  in  the  Inter 
national  Review  for  August,  1879,  an  article 
entitled  "Cabinet  Government  in  the  United 
States."  This  essay,  written  under  the  influ 
ence  of  Bagehot,  reveals  a  clear  knowledge  of 
one  of  the  problems  which  were  about  to  oc 
cupy  the  whole  of  his  life. 

"Our  patriotism  [he  wrote]  seems  of  late 


20  President  Wilson 

to  have  been  exchanging  its  wonted  tone  of 
confident  hope  for  one  of  desponding  solici 
tude.  Anxiety  about  the  future  of  our  insti 
tutions  seems  to  be  daily  becoming  stronger  in 
the  minds  of  thoughtful  Americans.  A  feel 
ing  of  uneasiness  is  undoubtedly  prevalent, 
sometimes  taking  the  shape  of  a  fear  that 
grave,  perhaps  radical,  defects  in  our  mode  of 
government  are  militating  against  our  liberty 
and  prosperity.  A  marked  and  alarming  de 
cline  in  statesmanship,  a  rule  of  levity  and 
folly  instead  of  wisdom  and  sober  forethought 
in  legislation,  threaten  to  shake  our  trust  not 
only  in  the  men  by  whom  our  national  policy 
is  controlled,  but  also  in  the  very  principles 
upon  which  our  Government  rests.  Both 
State  and  National  legislatures  are  looked  upon 
with  nervous  suspicion,  and  we  hail  an  ad 
journment  of  Congress  as  a  temporary  im 
munity  from  danger." 

In  France  we  should  call  such  language  re 
actionary.  But  care  must  be  taken  not  to  em 
ploy  too  quickly  words  whose  use  is  customary. 

Wilson  observed  around  him  a  disposition 
to  "throw  discredit  upon  the  principle  of  which 
the  practice  has  been  considered  the  honour 
and  political  glory  of  America — the  right  of 
every  man  to  a  voice  in  the  government  under 
which  he  lives."  But  it  was  a  disposition  with- 


Childhood  and  Youth  21 

out  importance.  European  democracies  are 
hindered  in  their  development  by  remem 
brances,  by  the  example  of  strong  institutions 
which  have  preceded  them  and  which  still  sur 
round  them.  Discontent  and  dissatisfaction 
thus  inspired  are  inevitably  fed  and  excited  by 
these  souvenirs  and  examples.  Instead  of  con 
triving  and  acting,  instead  of  looking  towards 
the  future,  their  thoughts  turn  to  a  past  they 
are  unable  to  forget.  Remains  still  exist  of 
former  institutions  which  still  seem  to  be  part 
of  the  present.  Tempted  sometimes  to  return 
to  them,  the  success  of  such  ventures  is  medi 
ocre  where  it  does  not  result  in  failure.  And 
these  experiments,  which  are  indeed  reaction 
ary,  exhaust  all  faculties  of  imagination,  of 
action,  of  hope  itself.  But  this  temptation 
does  not  exist  for  the  American  peoples.  In 
their  short  history  they  have  known  but  one 
manner  of  being,  and  but  a  single  political  tra 
dition — that  of  democracy.  They  must  dis 
appear,  or  contrive  and  advance  in  the  prac 
tice  even  of  democracy.  A  good  number  have 
vanished.  Others  will  save  themselves  per 
haps  by  contrivance  and  invention. 

The  youthful  Wilson  did  not  speak  ill  of 
democracy.  This  would  have  been  lost  time, 
and  he  had  better  work  to  be  employed  upon. 
He  enjoyed  a  strong  and  hopeful  confidence 


22  President  Wilson 

which  forms  one  of  his  characteristics,  and 
is  also  one  of  the  irrational,  instinctive,  and 
incoercible  forces  of  his  race.  He  saw  clearly 
and  defined  the  defect  of  the  American  consti 
tution.  That  defect  is  the  dispersion  of  en 
ergies,  the  concerted  paralysis  of  power. 

"There  is  no  one  in  Congress  to  speak  for 
the  nation.  Congress  is  a  conglomeration  of 
inharmonious  elements;  a  collection  of  men 
representing  each  his  neighbourhood,  each  his 
local  interest;  an  alarmingly  large  proportion 
of  its  legislation  is  'special' ;  all  of  it  is  at  best 
only  a  limping  compromise  between  the  con 
flicting  interests  of  the  innumerable  localities 
represented.  There  is  no  guiding  or  harmon 
ising  power.  Are  the  people  in  favour  of  a 
particular  policy — what  means  have  they  of 
forcing  it  upon  the  sovereign  legislature  at 
Washington?  None  but  the  most  imperfect. 
If  they  return  representatives  who  favour  it 
(and  this  is  the  most  they  can  do),  these  rep 
resentatives,  being  under  no  directing  power, 
will  find  a  mutual  agreement  impracticable 
among  so  many,  and  will  finally  settle  upon 
some  policy  which  satisfies  nobody,  removes 
no  difficulty,  and  makes  little  definite  or  valu 
able  provision  for  the  future." 

Direction  is  lacking.     As  Mr.  Wilson  felt 


Childhood  and  Youth  23 

and  spoke  at  the  age  of  twenty  so  he  will  al 
ways  feel  and  speak.  A  policy  must  be  initi 
ated.  He  wished  it  then,  and  the  wish  will 
continue.  At  the  beginning  of  his  career  he 
discovered  his  problem  and  his  aim.  But  the 
choice  of  a  remedy  will  vary.  The  Executive 
and  the  Legislative  being  separated,  the  prob 
lem  is  to  establish  between  them  a  subordina 
tion.  There  are  two  alternatives.  The  first  is  to 
subordinate  the  Executive  to  the  Legislative; 
the  second,  to  subordinate  the  Legislative  to 
the  Executive.  In  later  life  Mr.  Wilson  will 
practise  the  first  solution.  In  his  younger 
days  he  did  not  see  the  problem  in  this  light. 
He  remained  under  the  influence  of  his  read 
ing,  and  the  liberal  and  parliamentary  ideas 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  praised  the 
methods  of  "Cabinet  Government"  in  the  Eng 
lish  manner,  that  is  to  say  the  government  of 
the  state  by  a  minister  springing  from  the 
chambers  and  responsible  to  them.  "The  Ex 
ecutive  is  in  constant  need  of  legislative  co-op 
eration;  the  legislative  must  be  aided  by  an 
Executive  who  is  in  a  position  intelligently 
and  vigorously  to  execute  its  acts.  There 
must  needs  be,  therefore,  a  binding  link  be 
tween  them.  .  .  .  Such  a  link  is  the  responsi 
ble  cabinet." 


24  President  Wilson 

In  1880  Mr.  Wilson  published  some  essays 
on  English  politicians  (John  Bright  and  Glad 
stone)  in  the  magazine  of  the  University  of 
Virginia.  At  the  end  of  1880  he  left  this  Uni 
versity.  He  had  knocked  himself  up  through 
an  excessive  strain  of  intellectual  work,  and 
for  a  year  he  rested  with  his  family.  But  he 
was  without  means  and  had  to  settle  to  a  pro 
fession.  He  decided  to  enter  the  law,  and,  in 
May,  1882,  established  himself  in  the  new  city 
of  Atlanta.  Life  ran  very  keenly  and  there 
was  much  business.  His  choice  seemed  judi 
cious.  Mr.  Wilson  installed  himself  quite 
modestly;  his  simple  office  is  still  to  be  seen. 
He  did  not  succeed.  Without  doubt  he  had 
too  much  taste  for  public  affairs  to  interest 
himself  deeply  in  private  business.  He  waited 
for  clients,  but  he  did  not  know  how  to  seek 
or  attract  them.  He  could  not  set  aside  his 
old  habits  of  observation,  of  meditation  upon 
historical  and  political  problems.  He  had 
made  a  mistake  in  selecting  his  career,  which 
he  recognised  after  a  year's  waiting.  Quit 
ting  Atlanta  he  returned  to  a  university  to 
finish  studies  and  become  a  professor.  He 
worked  for  three  years.  In  1885  he  was  given 
the  charge  of  a  historical  course  at  Bryn  Mawr 
College.  He  was  then  in  his  thirtieth  year. 
His  apprenticeship  had  been  long  and  varied, 


Childhood  and  Youth  25 

but  not  unfruitful.  He  proved  it  by  publish 
ing  during  the  same  year  1885  a  book  entitled 
"Congressional  Government;  a  Study  of 
American  Politics."  A  French  translation  of 
this  work  appeared  in  1900. 

This  book  deserves  our  attention.  Mr. 
Wilson  takes  up  the  thread  again — and  it  is  a 
sign  of  tenacious  thought — of  the  observa 
tions  and  the  theses  he  published  in  1879  m  his 
first  study.  Ten  years  of  experience  fortified 
and  enriched  his  ideas.  "Congressional  Gov 
ernment"  is  not  a  youthful  work.  Reading  it 
gives  us  the  measure  of  the  man,  reveals  the 
instinctive  lines  of  his  thought  and  their  out 
come. 

The  revelation  is  perhaps  surprising.  Little 
was  known  of  Mr.  Wilson  before  his  Presi 
dency,  very  little  before  the  war  suddenly  con 
ferred  upon  him  the  grandiose  and  unforeseen 
position  of  world  arbiter.  At  first  he  was 
judged  by  those  messages  addressed  to  the 
American  nation,  eloquent  pages  glowing  with 
religious  and  Christian  thought  and  democratic 
idealism.  But  the  note  struck  in  these  mes 
sages  is  quite  different  from  the  tone  of  Wood- 
row  Wilson's  political  studies,  what  may  be 
called  his  lay  work.  In  his  personality,  as  in 
his  family  descent,  there  seems  to  be  a  double 


26  President  Wilson 

tradition,  a  double  inspiration,  one  religious, 
the  other  practical.  On  one  side  there  is  the 
man  of  action,  the  clear-headed  politician  who 
speaks  in  shrewd  and  concise  language,  who 
seeks  truth  alone  and  that  only  for  the  pur 
poses  of  action.  On  the  other  hand  we  find  a 
leader  of  the  people,  sacerdotal  in  character, 
who,  addressing  himself  to  the  masses — to 
touch  them  more  deeply  perhaps,  and  the  bet 
ter  to  lead  them  (again  and  always  for  action) 
— speaks  a  solemn  language  and  seeks  the 
pathos  of  the  old  faiths.  But  the  most  active 
of  the  two  personalities,  the  most  constant, 
never  sleeping,  is  the  first.  If  the  President's 
messages  are  read  with  care  a  political  pru 
dence  can  be  detected,  an  authoritative  and 
real  ardour.  But  in  the  political  writings  we 
find  nothing  but  politics.  We  use  the  word  in 
its  noblest  meaning.  A  politician  is  he  who 
has  the  vocation,  the  passion,  and  eventually 
the  genius  of  country  and  of  state. 

"Congressional  Government"  is  at  first 
sight  the  intelligent  and  lively  production  of  a 
disciple  of  Bagehot  who,  however,  does  not 
equal  his  master.  The  old  London  banker  had 
an  experience  and  a  temperament  very  differ 
ent  from  that  of  our  young  politician.  But  the 
personal  note  of  the  book,  its  superiority,  in 
vites  comparison.  Bagehot  is  an  observer  ani- 


Childhood  and  Youth  27 

mated  by  curiosity,  but  Woodrow  Wilson 
observes  with  a  more  passionate  interest.  He 
does  not  analyse  every  detail  of  the  political 
machinery  of  his  country  for  the  pleasure  of 
analysis  and  the  discovery  of  unforeseen  com 
binations.  His  object  is  modification  and 
amelioration.  Perhaps  already  he  is  being 
stirred  by  a  remote  ambition  for  action,  in  or 
der  to  make  himself  master  of  the  machine. 

How  do  these  powers — so  wisely  arranged 
— work  in  practice?  A  semi-religious  respect 
had  for  a  long  while  preserved  the  work  of 
the  founders  of  the  nation  from  criticism.  He 
broke  away  from  this  deferential  tradition,  and 
followed  his  own  line  of  analysis  with  a  rad 
ical  lack  of  respect.  Woodrow  Wilson  wished 
to  demonstrate  that  the  idea  of  the  American 
Constitution  is  false,  and  that  its  results  are 
absurd.  The  Constitutionalists  of  1787  tried 
to  separate  the  three  powers,  executive,  judi 
cial,  and  legislative.  By  opposing  these  pow 
ers  their  desire  was  to  make  them  counterbal 
ance  each  other  in  so  perfect  a  way  that  they 
could  never  menace  the  liberty  of  the  citizens. 
Their  idea  of  the  state  was  negative.  They 
did  not  realise  that  the  function  of  the  state 
is  positive  and  directing.  Deprived  of  power 
and  unity,  a  state  cannot  fulfil  such  functions. 
What  happened?  The  Constitution  has  never 


28  President  Wilson 

worked.  It  has  always  been  expounded  and 
circumvented  by  politicians.  One  of  the  three 
powers  is  always  straining  itself  to  assure  the 
mastery  at  the  expense  of  the  other  two.  In 
the  year  1885  when  Mr.  Wilson  was  writing 
"Congressional  Government,"  the  parliament 
triumphed.  The  President  was  no  more  than 
head  clerk.  He  no  longer  dared  make  use  of 
the  right  of  speaking  directly  to  Congress;  he 
no  longer  directed  the  legislative  work  of  the 
chamber  by  his  recommendations  or  vetoes. 
The  two  chambers  succeeded  in  restraining 
and  stifling  his  powers.  The  Supreme  Court, 
which  judged  as  to  the  very  legality  of  the  laws, 
was  effaced,  and  allowed  the  legislative  power 
to  exercise  the  privilege  of  determining  the  na 
ture,  extent,  and  grounds  of  its  own  powers. 
Nothing  remained.  The  House  of  Represen 
tatives  and  the  Senate,  which  together  form 
Congress,  became  victors.  But  it  was  a  sad 
victory.  Congress  was  able  to  reduce  its  riv 
als,  but  it  was  not  able  to  overcome  the  laws 
enshrined  in  the  Constitution.  It  was  able  to 
suppress  the  liberties  of  the  Executive,  but  the 
Executive  existed  outside  it,  and  was  able  to 
glide  into  office  by  a  tortuous  path.  Congress 
was  able  to  diminish  and  weaken  the  authority 
of  the  Secretaries  of  State.  They  continued 
to  exist,  however.  The  President  appointed 


Childhood  and  Youth  29 

them,  and  Congress  was  not  able  to  eject  them. 
Congress  was  not  able  to  hold  those  great  de 
bates  of  criticism  and  judgment  which  are  the 
glory,  the  prestige,  and  the  strength  of  the  Eu 
ropean  Parliaments.  The  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  had  to  resign  itself  to  obscure  and 
confused  work,  divided  into  forty-seven  com 
mittees  (which  form  its  traditional  organisa 
tion)  under  the  direction  of  forty-seven  chair 
men,  each  one  the  master  in  his  limited  domain, 
happy  to  preserve  his  authority  by  oblique 
methods  of  domination.  Thus  the  primitive 
constitution  was  overthrown.  A  curious  dis 
integration  reigned  even  in  the  institution 
which  prevailed  over  the  others.  The  effect  of 
this  disintegration  was  a  continual  adjustment, 
pettifoggery,  explanation,  which  has  been  an 
unfavourable  influence  upon  the  American  po 
litical  character.  "We  have  always  had  plenty 
of  excellent  lawyers  [wrote  Mr.  Wilson  in 
"Congressional  Government"]  though  we  have 
often  had  to  do  without  even  tolerable  admin 
istrators,  and  seem  destined  to  endure  the  in 
convenience  of  hereafter  doing  without  any 
constructive  statesmen  at  all." 

"Constructive!"  The  word  is  frequently 
used  in  the  political  phraseology  of  the  United 
States  of  America.  They  speak  of  a  construc 
tive  politician,  of  a  constructive  mind.  Such 


30  President  Wilson 

politicians  and  such  intellects  are  rare.  The 
need  of  them  is  often  experienced  and  ex 
pressed.  Woodrow  Wilson  was  one  of  the 
first  to  feel  the  need,  one  of  the  ablest  to  ex 
press  it.  Would  America  always  be  able  to 
continue  without  leaders  and  constructors? 
The  answer  was  an  assured  "no."  She  wanted 
them  in  the  past,  and  discovered  it  during  the 
difficult  period  of  her  formation  as  a  state. 
"Washington  and  his  Cabinet  commanded  the 
ear  of  Congress,  and  gave  shape  to  its  delib 
erations;  Adams,  though  often  crossed  and 
thwarted,  gave  character  to  the  government; 
and  Jefferson,  as  President  no  less  than  as  Sec 
retary  of  State,  was  the  real  leader  of  his 
party.  .  .  .  What  with  quarrelling  and  fight 
ing  with  England,  buying  Louisiana  and  Flor 
ida,  building  dykes  to  keep  out  the  flood  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  extricating  the  coun 
try  from  ceaseless  broils  with  the  South  Amer 
ican  Republics,  the  government  was,  as  has 
been  pointed  out,  constantly  busy,  during  the 
first  quarter  century  of  its  existence,  with  the 
adjustment  of  foreign  relations;  and  with  for 
eign  relations,  of  course,  the  Presidents  had 
everything  to  do,  since  theirs  was  the  office  of 
negotiation."  From  1830  difficulties  lessened. 
The  American  people  settled  in  comfort  across 
its  vast  domain.  The  political  parties  organ- 


Childhood  and  Youth  31 

ised  themselves,  and  succeeded  in  diminishing 
the  presidential  authority.  When  the  presi 
dential  candidate  came  to  be  chosen,  it  was 
recognised  as  imperatively  necessary  that  he 
should  have  as  short  a  political  record  as  pos 
sible,  and  that  he  should  wear  a  clean  and  ir 
reproachable  insignificance.  "Gentlemen,"  said 
a  distinguished  American  public  man,  "I 
would  make  an  excellent  President,  but  a  very 
poor  candidate."  A  decisive  career  which 
gives  a  man  a  well-understood  place  in  public 
estimation  constitutes  a  positive  disability  for 
the  presidency;  because  candidacy  must  pre 
cede  election,  and  the  shoals  of  candidacy  can 
be  passed  only  by  a  light  boat  which  carries 
little  freight  and  can  be  turned  readily  about 
to  suit  the  intricacies  of  the  passage. 

Thus  were  the  Constitution  and  the  political 
customs  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  States 
of  America  as  they  appeared  in  1885.  Wood- 
row  Wilson  saw  the  urgency  of  reform.  The 
country  was  growing  in  strength  and  becoming 
conscious  of  its  growth.  And,  with  the  same 
movement,  the  souls  of  the  people  were  forti 
fied  by  national  sentiment.  "The  war  between 
the  States  [wrote  Mr.  Wilson]  was  the  su 
preme  and  final  struggle  between  those  forces 
of  disintegration  which  still  remained  in  the 
blood  of  the  body  politic  and  those  other  forces 


32  President  Wilson 

of  health,  of  union  and  amalgamation,  which 
had  been  gradually  building  up  that  body  in 
vigour  and  strength  as  the  system  passed  from 
youth  to  maturity,  and  as  its  constitution  hard 
ened  and  ripened  with  advancing  age."  The 
victory  of  the  North,  the  defeat  of  the  separa 
tists,  ended  these  juvenile  vacillations.  The 
Republic  of  the  United  States  of  America  was 
henceforth  one  of  the  first  powers  of  the 
world.  But  the  political  State,  motive  force 
of  this  power,  remained  a  weak  machine.  How 
was  its  infirmity  to  be  cured?  During  the  ten 
years  that  Mr.  Wilson  was  studying  and  work 
ing,  he  does  not  seem  to  have  concerned  him 
self  with  any  other  question.  How  could  this 
crumbling  and  disintegrating  State  be  given 
the  necessary  strength  and  unity?  How  could 
it  find  the  personal  authority,  in  a  word,  the 
leadership,  which — and  Woodrow  Wilson  real 
ised  it  from  that  moment — is  the  condition  of 
energetic  national  action,  or  of  any  other  ac 
tion? 

"If  there  be  one  principle  clearer  than  an 
other,  [he  wrote]  it  is  this :  that  in  any  business, 
whether  of  government  or  of  mere  merchandis 
ing,  somebody  must  be  trusted,  in  order  that 
when  things  go  wrong  it  may  be  quite  plain  who 
should  be  punished.  In  order  to  drive  trade  at 
the  speed  and  with  the  success  you  desire,  you 


Childhood  and  Youth  33 

must  confide  without  suspicion  in  your  chief 
clerk,  giving  him  the  power  to  ruin  you,  be 
cause  you  thereby  furnish  him  with  a  motive 
for  serving  you.  His  reputation,  his  own  hon 
our  or  disgrace,  all  his  own  commercial  pros 
pects,  hang  upon  your  success.  And  human 
nature  is  much  the  same  in  government  as  in 
the  dry-goods  trade.  Power  and  strict  ac 
countability  for  its  use  are  the  essential  con 
stituents  of  good  government.  A  sense  of 
highest  responsibility,  a  dignifying  and  ele 
vating  sense  of  being  trusted,  together  with  a 
consciousness  of  being  in  an  official  station  so 
conspicuous  that  no  faithful  discharge  of  duty 
can  go  unacknowledged  and  unrewarded,  and 
no  breach  of  trust  undiscovered  and  unpun 
ished, — these  are  the  influences,  the  only  influ 
ences,  which  foster  practical,  energetic,  and 
trustworthy  statesmanship.  The  best  rulers 
are  always  those  to  whom  great  power  is  in 
trusted  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  them  feel 
that  they  will  surely  be  abundantly  honoured 
and  recompensed  for  a  just  and  patriotic  use 
of  it,  and  to  make  them  know  that  nothing  can 
shield  them  from  full  retribution  for  every 
abuse  of  it." 

Reform  was  necessary.  Mr.  Wilson,  in 
ending  his  book,  proposed  a  project  of  reform. 
We  know  it  already,  for  it  is  the  same  idea  he 


34  President  Wilson 

expressed  in  his  essay  of  1879,  and  that  Bage- 
hot  had  taught  him.  "Since  Congress  has  over 
come  the  two  concurrent  powers,"  he  said,  'let 
us  recognise  the  fact,  and  celebrate  the  victory 
by  disembarrassing  it  of  the  iron  bands  of  the 
Constitution.  Let  us  give  it,  as  in  the  English 
Parliament,  the  right  of  selecting  the  leader 
who  will  direct  his  Party  and  govern  the  coun 
try."  Mr.  Wilson  deceived  himself,  and  he  rec 
ognised  the  fact  later.  The  reform  he  pro 
posed  was  valueless,  for  it  was  without  true 
foundation.  Mr.  Wilson's  wisdom  was  dis 
turbed  by  the  traditions  of  the  European  nine 
teenth  century,  by  the  example  of  that  Eng 
lish  parliamentarism  which  produced  such  ad 
mirable  leaders  as  Disraeli  and  Gladstone. 
Mr.  Wilson  did  not  value  exactly,  perhaps  did 
not  measure  at  all,  the  vitality  of  the  presiden 
tial  institution  as  it  exists  in  the  United  States, 
based  upon  a  popular  vote  renewed  every  four 
years.  He  judged  it  by  analogy  with  the 
Presidencies  and  the  Constitutional  Monar 
chies  of  Europe.  At  the  moment  of  his  ob 
servations  it  was  far  from  active.  He  believed 
it  to  be  expiring.  But  it  only  slept.  Wash 
ington  and  Lincoln  had  occupied  the  seat  and 
glorified  it  in  the  past.  Why  should  its  future 
be  without  glory?  The  nation  remained  at- 


Childhood  and  Youth  35 

tached  to  this  institution  by  habit  and  with 
hope.    To  alter  it  was  far  from  wise. 

We  cannot  be  surprised  at  Mr.  Wilson's  er 
ror.  No  student  could  have  foreseen,  no  the 
oretical  observer  could  have  foretold,  the  rapid 
enlargement,  the  unheard  of  development  of 
the  presidential  function.  This  spontaneous 
change  is  one  of  the  most  singular  surprises 
of  history.  The  seed  had  been  planted  in  rich 
soil. 


II — Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902 

MR.  WILSON'S  work  is  easy  to 
follow  because  it  is  logical.  At 
the  age  of  twenty,  the  events  of 
everyday  life  attracted  his  atten 
tion  towards  the  problem  of  the  American 
state.  He  studied  the  problem  for  ten  years, 
and  it  became  the  subject  of  his  first  book.  And 
now,  though  remote  and  detached  from  it,  he 
enlarged  the  scope  of  the  matter  and  studied 
it  more  profoundly.  In  a  retreat  honoured  by 
time  he  occupied  himself  with  the  problem  to 
its  fullest  extent.  The  subject  he  desired  to 
make  his  own  was  the  essentials  of  a  State,  as 
manifested  in  its  consciousness  and  moral 
sense.  What  is  the  English  state,  the  German 
state,  the  French  state  ?  What  were  the  medi 
aeval  and  classical  states?  What  is  a  Parlia 
ment  or  a  bureaucracy?  In  short,  what  is  a 
state,  and  what  are  its  functions?  After  three 
years  of  investigation  Mr.  Wilson  published  a 
book  entitled,  'The  State:  Elements  of  His 
torical  and  Practical  Politics."  This  excellent 
manual  had  a  great  success  in  American  uni 
versities,  and  was  soon  translated  into  French. 

36 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       37 

It  is  not  the  work  of  a  scholar,  for  Mr.  Wilson 
does  not  toil  over  the  texts,  and  seeks  his  in 
formation  at  second  hand.  It  is  not  the  work 
of  an  inventive  thinker.  Mr.  Wilson  does  not 
strive  to  construct  a  theory.  He  adopts  the 
formula  in  vogue  with  the  sociological  school. 
The  book  is  one  of  vigorous  and  comprehen 
sive  intelligence,  which  sets  out  solidly  and  con 
cisely  conclusions  drawn  from  all  useful  facts. 
He  does  not  give  a  dissertation  upon  the  na 
ture  of  a  state,  or  its  origin,  or  the  limits  of  its 
rights.  His  point  of  view  is  entirely  positive, 
"historical  and  practical,"  as  the  title  warns 
us.  He  considers  human  societies  as  organ 
isms  with  laws,  functions,  and  directing  mem 
bers  of  which  the  first  is  the  state.  By  means 
of  the  state  "society  adapts  itself  to  its  sur 
roundings  and  realises  a  more  active  life."  The 
state  is  a  directing  organisation.  This  is  the 
reason  of  its  existence,  and  the  more  surely 
it  directs  the  more  valuable  it  becomes.  "The 
essential*  characteristic  of  all  government, 
whatever  its  form,  is  authority.  There  must 
in  every  instance  be,  on  the  one  hand,  gover 
nors  and,  on  the  other,  those  who  are  governed. 
And  the  authority  of  governors,  directly  or  in 
directly,  rests  in  all  cases  ultimately  on  force." 
Wilson  did  not  believe  in  the  decline  of  author 
ity.  The  functions  of  the  modern  state  did  not 


38  President  Wilson 

seem  to  him  essentially  different  from  those 
of  the  states  of  antiquity.  Was  he  then  actu 
ally  a  conservative,  and  had  the  experience  of 
a  new  world  meant  nothing  to  him  ?  This  was 
not  the  case,  and  one  of  his  observations  must 
be  quoted.  Authority,  he  considered,  should 
be  exercised,  and  must  be  exercised,  in  a  dif: 
ferent  manner  to-day.  "Government  does  not 
necessarily  exist  by  open  force  [he  wrote]. 
And  indeed,  it  is  very  necessary  that  there 
should  be  some  other  foundation.  Military 
despotisms  are  becoming  rare  and  more  pre 
carious.  The  people  are  no  longer  disinte 
grated  as  in  feudal  society  and  the  ancient  mon 
archies;  they  form  massed  bodies,  and  their 
powers  of  assent  or  opposition  are  very  great. 
The  power  of  the  majority  is  the  innovation 
of  the  modern  world.  And  the  statesman's 
art  to-day  is  to  awaken,  to  arouse,  and  to  di 
rect  this  new  force." 

These  words  must  be  italicized.  It  is  im 
possible  to  read  them  without  immediately  be 
lieving  that  at  some  later  time  they  will  find 
their  application. 

This  book  on  "The  State"  is  the  only  sci 
entific  work  he  has  written.  It  made  his  repu 
tation.  In  1890  he  was  called  to  the  Chair  of 
Jurisprudence  in  the  University  of  Princeton, 
where  he  had  finished  his  studies.  He  ac- 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       39 

cepted  the  offer  at  once,  and  entered  a  higher 
circle  in  which  he  developed  and  fulfilled  his 
university  career. 

The  University  of  Princeton  has  existed 
since  the  year  1746.  It  is  one  of  the  most  an 
cient  universities  in  America.  Only  Harvard, 
Yale,  and  William  and  Mary  are  older.  Orig 
inally  a  religious  foundation,  the  University 
of  Princeton  was  established  by  the  Calvinistic 
Presbyterian  Church  to  which  the  Wilson  fam 
ily  was  attached.  It  remained  affiliated  to  that 
church,  and  for  a  considerable  time  followed 
the  tradition  of  selecting  its  presidents  from 
amongst  the  Presbyterian  dignitaries.  This 
rule  was  not  departed  from  until  the  end  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  names  of  Prince 
ton  and  of  its  University  often  recur  in  the 
history  of  the  United  States.  Washington's 
soldiers  were  beaten  under  its  walls,  and  traces 
of  the  combat  are  still  shown.  In  1783  an  as 
sembly  of  the  new  states  held  session  in  its 
halls,  and  it  was  at  Princeton  that  Washing 
ton  wrote  and  issued  his  Farewell  to  the  Army. 
The  University  is  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey 
which  borders  upon  the  State  of  New  York. 
Thus  it  is  able  to  share  the  life  of  both  North 
and  East,  and  to  participate  in  the  culture  of 
that  part  of  America  which  is  closest  to  Eu- 


40  President  Wilson 

rope  and  still  remains  attached  to  the  older 
continent.  A  great  number  of  young  men 
from  the  Southern  States  customarily  enter 
their  names  on  its  books.  Thus  it  is  linked  to 
another  and  different  America,  which  has  a  life 
with  interests  and  passions  of  its  own,  its  own 
history,  manners,  and  local  pride.  Princeton 
University  is  in  the  highest  degree  a  national 
University,  with  all  the  peaceful  majesty  of 
those  old  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cam 
bridge,  its  ancestors  and  exemplars.  In  addi 
tion  it  possesses  the  wealth  of  American  insti 
tutions.  Old  pupils,  the  alumni,  cherish  and 
endow  it  with  gifts.  Occupying  a  domain 
which  covers  some  five  hundred  acres,  its  halls, 
libraries,  residences,  and  laboratories  are  scat 
tered  amidst  the  verdure.  The  lake  is  nearly 
three  miles  long.  Carnegie  gave  the  money 
which  was  necessary  for  the  enlargement  upon 
such  a  scale  of  the  River  Milletone  which  runs 
along  the  estate.  Old,  rich,  and  active,  the 
University  enjoys  a  prestige  which  benefits  its 
teachers  and  its  presidents.  Its  professors  re 
ceive  much  consideration  in  American  society, 
and  its  presidents  are  invested  with  a  very  high 
authority. 

Public  life  was  the  true  vocation  of  Mr.  Wil 
son.  His  new  position  at  the  university  af 
forded  him  facilities  which  he  made  use  of 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       41 

without  delay.  He  set  about  making  himself 
known  other  than  as  a  man  of  science  or  a  spe 
cialist.  He  spoke  well.  This  talent  was  the 
result  of  long  application  and  a  foreseeing«will. 
His  friend  and  biographer,  Mr.  Henry  Jones 
Ford,  says  that  he  cultivated  his  faculty  for 
public  speaking  with  a  view  to  public  service. 
He  wrote  well.  His  style  was  refined  and  ex 
act,  naturally  animated  and  persuasive.  His 
father  acted  as  a  judge  and  adviser.  All  his 
writings  were  read  to  the  old  man  who  exacted 
an  absolute  clearness  of  expression.  He 
would  stop  his  son — 

"What  does  that  sentence  mean?" 

The  son  explained  with  all  the  clearness  of 
which  he  was  capable.  Then  the  father  would 
reply: 

"You  must  say  it  thus.  A  target  must  be  hit 
in  the  bull's-eye.  You  are  not  shooting  at  birds 
with  small  shot  which  spread  over  the  whole 
country."  * 

"My  father  taught  me,"  said  Mr.  Wilson, 
"to  think  in  definitions." 

Mr.  Wilson  wished  to  make  himself  heard. 
He  desired  to  intervene  in  the  discussion  of 
ideas,  in  those  high  polemics  which  occupy  and 
exercise  the  cultivated  classes  of  every  coun- 

*See  a  conversation  with  the  President,  by  Ida  M.  Tarbell, 
in  Collier's  for  October  28,  1916. 


42  President  Wilson 

try.  Was  Mr.  Wilson  at  that  moment  plan 
ning  a  political  future?  The  statement  can 
not  be  affirmed  with  any  certainty,  although 
many  indications  allow  us  to  suppose  it.  As 
a  youth  he  had  thought  of  such  a  career.  As 
a  man  was  he  likely  to  be  distracted  and  turned 
aside  from  such  a  path  ?  Was  he  able  to  for 
get  an  ambition  so  fully  justified  by  education 
and  natural  gifts  ?  We  cannot  believe  it.  Mr. 
Wilson  is  tenacious  in  his  designs  as  in  his 
views.  He  renounces  little  easily.  But  the 
entry  to  a  political  career  is  difficult.  Profes 
sional  politicians  guard  the  gates  very  care 
fully.  Where  novices  are  not  welcomed  it  is 
necessary  to  wait  until  increased  importance 
permits  the  newcomer  to  impose  himself. 
Probably  this  was  Mr.  Wilson's  plan.  He  was 
thirty-five  years  of  age.  Life  was  before  him, 
and  his  chances  were  exceedingly  good.  For  a 
while  he  neglected  political  discussion.  As  a 
university  professor  he  made  himself  known, 
and  he  dealt  with  the  more  general  problems 
of  pedagogy  and  the  intellectual  life. 

These  problems  are  well  known  to  us.  The 
same  questions  are  propounded  in  the  same 
years  in  the  same  terms  in  the  United  States 
as  in  France.  A  single  movement  of  ideas  ani 
mates  both  the  worlds  of  Europe  and  America. 
What  is  the  value  of  science?  How  can  its 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       48 

utility,  and  its  limits,  be  defined?  What  is  the 
value  of  traditional  culture?  How  can  we 
agree  the  exigencies  of  a  general  culture  with 
the  technical  education  of  youth  ?  These  ques 
tions  have  occupied  and  even  divided  French 
opinion,  and  it  is  interesting  to  have  Mr.  Wil 
son's  judgments.  These  verdicts  always  coin 
cide  with  those  arrived  at  in  France  and  in  Eu 
rope  by  the  conservative  bodies  of  opinion. 
We  need  not  conclude  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  a 
conservative  according  to  the  fashion  of  the 
old  world,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that 
American  traditions  and  lines  of  thought  are 
different  from  ours.  Without  seeking  to  clas 
sify  him  according  to  definitions  which  will 
not  meet  his  case,  and  in  parties  to  which  he 
does  not  belong,  we  must  listen  attentively,  and 
endeavour  to  understand  his  reasoning. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Mr.  Wilson's  re 
flections  in  the  political  field  followed  at  first 
a  clear  direction.  He  believed  that  force,  au 
thority,  and  the  independence  of  the  State  were 
social  necessities  to  be  fully  guaranteed.  In 
the  teaching  world  Mr.  Wilson  selected  his 
points  of  view,  and  insisted  upon  his  ideas  with 
the  same  quickness  and  lucidity.  His  first  in 
terest  in  the  education  of  an  individual  was  the 
social  rather  than  the  individual  value  which  is 
likely  to  accrue.  In  1893  he  delivered  an  ad- 


44  President  Wilson 

dress  at  the  International  Congress  of  Educa 
tion  at  Chicago,  and  he  explained  himself  in 
clear  terms.  "There  is  a  two-fold  aspect  of 
the  educational  question/'  he  said.  "It  may  be 
discussed  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  indi 
vidual  who  is  seeking  professional  instruction 
as  a  means  of  gaining  a  livelihood,  or  from  the 
point  of  view  of  society  itself,  which  must  wish 
to  be  well  served  by  its  professional  classes. 
The  community  will  doubtless  be  inclined  to  de 
mand  more  education  than  the  individual  will 
be  willing  to  tarry  for  before  entering  on  the 
practice  of  his  profession."  Confronted  with 
these  two  points  of  view,  "the  self-interest  of 
the  individual,  or  the  self-interest  of  the  com 
munity/'  Mr.  Wilson  at  once  made  up  his  mind. 
He  did  not  think  (as  an  Anglo-Saxon  of  the 
nineteenth  century  would  naturally  have 
thought)  that  the  individual  is  the  best  judge 
of  the  education  he  personally  considers  nec 
essary,  and  that  the  convenience  of  society  is 
after  all  the  sum  of  individual  conveniences. 
On  the  contrary  the  needs  of  society  are  differ 
ent  and  more  important.  "The  practical  side 
of  this  question  is  certainly  a  very  serious  one 
in  this  country  [he  wrote].  That  there  should 
be  an  almost  absolute  freedom  of  occupation 
is  a  belief  very  intimately  and  tenaciously  con 
nected  with  the  democratic  theory  of  govern- 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902        45 

ment,  and  our  legislators  are  very  slow  to  lay 
many  restrictions  upon  it.  Our  colleges  and 
universities,  and  our  law  and  medical  and  the 
ological  schools  have  seldom  endowment 
enough  to  render  them  independent  of  popular 
demands  and  standards."  He  asked  that  the 
high  schools  and  universities  should  acquire 
this  liberty,  and  succeed  in  insisting  upon  the 
level  culture  which  is  necessary  for  organised 
humanity.  The  task  was  incumbent  upon 
them,  for  the  American  state  did  not  concern 
itself  about  education.  What  should  a  uni 
versity  teach  if  it  wished  to  be  worthy  of  so 
old  and  grand  a  name?  Mr.  Wilson  examined 
the  problem  in  an  article  which  he  published  in 
the  Forum  for  September,  1894. 

"In  order  to  be  national,  a  university  should 
have,  at  the  centre  of  all  its  training,  courses 
of  instruction  in  that  literature  which  contains 
the  ideals  of  its  race  and  all  the  nice  proofs  and 
subtle  inspirations  of  the  character,  spirit,  and 
thought  of  the  nation  which  it  serves ;  and,  be 
sides  that,  instruction  in  the  history  and  lead 
ing  conceptions  of  those  institutions  which 
have  served  the  nation's  energies  in  the  pres 
ervation  of  order  and  the  maintenance  of  just 
standards  of  civil  virtue  and  public  purpose. 
These  should  constitute  the  common  training 
of  all  its  students,  as  the  only  means  of  school- 


46  President  Wilson 

ing  their  spirits  for  their  common  life  as  citi 
zens.  For  the  rest,  they  might  be  free  to 
choose  what  they  would  learn.  .  .  .  The  world 
in  which  we  live  is  troubled  by  many  voices, 
seeking  to  proclaim  righteousness  and  judg 
ment  to  come;  but  they  disturb  without  in 
structing  us.  ...  There  is  no  corrective  for 
it  all  like  a  wide  acquaintance  with  the  best 
books  that  men  have  written,  joined  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  institutions  men  have  made 
trial  of  in  the  past;  and  for  each  nation  there 
is  its  own  record  of  mental  experience  and  po 
litical  experiment.  Such  a  record  always  so 
bers  those  who  read  it.  It  also  steadies  the 
nerves.  If  all  educated  men  knew  it,  it  would 
be  as  if  they  had  had  a  revelation.  They  could 
stand  together  and  govern,  with  open  eyes  and 
the  gift  of  tongues  which  other  men  could  un 
derstand.  Here  is  like  wild  talk  and  headlong 
passion  for  reform  in  the  past, — here  in  the 
books, — with  all  the  motives  that  underlay  the 
perilous  utterance  now  laid  bare :  these  are  not 
new  terrors  and  excitements.  Neither  need 
the  wisdom  be  new,  nor  the  humanity,  by  which 
they  shall  be  moderated  and  turned  to  right 
eous  ends.  There  is  old  experience  in  these 
matters,  or  rather  in  these  states  of  mind.  It 
is  no  new  thing  to  have  economic  problems  and 
dream  dreams  of  romantic  and  adventurous 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       47 

social  reconstruction.     And  so  it  is  out  of  books  \ 
that  we  can  get  our  means  and  our  self-pos-  \ 
session  for  a  sane  and  systematic  criticism  of 
life." 

Such  is  the  fundamental  idea  which  he  ex 
plains  and  develops  in  his  pedagogic  studies. 
This  great  American  is  opposed  to  what  in  Eu 
rope  we  are  accustomed  to  call  Americanism. 
He  scorns  the  hasty  work  of  the  moderns,  their 
superficiality  and  the  self-sufficiency  of  their 
thought.  Pushing  it  aside,  he  seeks  a  remedy, 
and  finds  it  in  the  constant  advocacy  of  a 
knowledge  of  the  past. 

In  October,  1896,  at  Princeton  itself,  com 
missioned  to  deliver  an  address  at  a  university 
solemnity,  he  selected  for  his  subject,  "Prince 
ton  in  the  nation's  service." 

"I  have  no  laboratory  but  the  world  of  books 
and  men  in  which  I  live ;  but  I  am  much  mis 
taken  if  the  scientific  spirit  of  the  age  is  not 
doing  us  a  disservice,  working  in  us  a  certain 
great  degeneracy.  Science  has  bred  in  us  a 
spirit  of  experiment  and  a  contempt  for  the 
past.  It  has  made  us  credulous  of  quick  im 
provement,  hopeful  of  discovering  panaceas, 
confident  of  success  in  every  new  thing.  .  .  . 
It  has  given  us  agnosticism  in  the  realm  of 
philosophy,  scientific  anarchism  in  the  field  of 
politics.  .  .  . 


48  President  Wilson 

"Let  me  say  once  more,  this  is  not  the  fault 
of  the  scientist ;  he  has  done  his  work  with  an 
intelligence  and  success  which  cannot  be  too 
much  admired.  It  is  the  work  of  the  noxious, 
intoxicating  gas  which  has  somehow  got  into 
the  lungs  of  the  rest  of  us  from  out  the  crev 
ices  of  his  workshop — a  gas,  it  would  seem, 
which  forms  only  in  the  outer  air,  and  where 
men  do  not  know  the  right  use  of  their  lungs. 
I  should  tremble  to  see  social  reform  led  by 
men  who  had  breathed  it ;  I  should  fear  nothing 
better  than  utter  destruction  from  a  revolution 
conceived  and  led  in  the  scientific  spirit.  Sci 
ence  has  not  changed  the  nature  of  society,  has 
not  made  history  a  whit  easier  to  understand, 
human  nature  a  whit  easier  to  reform.  It 
has  won  for  us  a  great  liberty  in  the  physical 
world,  a  liberty  from  superstitious  fear  and 
from  disease,  a  freedom  to  use  nature  as  a  fa 
miliar  servant;  but  it  has  not  freed  us  from 
ourselves.  It  has  not  purged  us  of  passion  or 
disposed  us  to  virtue.  It  has  not  made  us  less 
covetous  or  less  ambitious  or  less  self-indulg 
ent.  On  the  contrary,  it  may  be  suspected  of 
having  enhanced  our  passions,  by  making 
wealth  so  quick  to  come,  so  fickle  to  stay.  It 
has  wrought  such  instant,  incredible  improve 
ment  in  all  the  physical  setting  of  our  life,  that 
we  have  grown  the  more  impatient  of  the  unre- 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       49 

formed  condition  of  the  part  it  has  not  touched 
or  bettered,  and  we  want  to  get  at  our  spirits 
and  reconstruct  them  in  like  radical  fashion  by 
like  processes  of  experiment.  We  have  broken 
with  the  past  and  have  come  into  a  new  world. 

"Can  any  one  wonder,  then,  that  I  ask  for 
the  old  drill,  the  old  memory  of  times  gone  by, 
the  old  schooling  in  precedent  and  tradition, 
the  old  keeping  of  faith  with  the  past,  as  a 
preparation  for  leadership  in  days  of  social 
change  ?" 

This  address  created  great  interest,  says  his 
biographer,  Mr.  Ford,  and  was  reproduced  in 
many  reviews  and  newspapers.  The  educative 
and  moral  value  of  science  was  then — as  in 
Europe — a  matter  of  study  and  debate.  In 
these  discussions  Mr.  Wilson's  address  was  of 
outstanding  importance,  and  his  name  was 
quoted  as  an  authority.  His  fine  oratorical 
gifts  commenced  to  be  known.  Towns,  col 
leges,  associations  of  every  kind  sought  for  him 
and  wished  to  hear  him.  Mr.  Wilson  lacked 
the  movement,  the  warm  passion,  the  inven 
tive  and  lyrical  imagination  of  a  Bryan.  He 
had  not  the  familiar  impetuosity  of  a  Theodore 
Roosevelt.  His  word  did  not  fascinate  or  cap 
tivate  from  the  first  moment  of  utterance. 
But,  gradually  improving,  it  at  last  forced  itself 
upon  and  dominated  its  auditors. 


50  President  Wilson 

Thus  Mr.  Wilson  was  sensible  of  a  growing 
and  well  disposed  public  interest.  He  re 
sponded  to  this  attention  by  writing  some 
books  of  a  public  and  almost  popular  nature. 

In  1892  he  had  published  an  historical  study 
entitled  "Division  and  Reunion,"  which  nar 
rated,  with  the  precision  of  a  manual  rather 
than  the  charm  of  a  story,  the  history  of  the 
United  States  between  1829  and  1889.  This 
book  is  excellent.  Events  are  analysed  and 
men's  characters  are  drawn  with  a  masterly 
touch.  But  it  was  a  student's  book  and  had  no 
other  aim.  In  1897  he  published  his  large  bi 
ography  of  Washington. 

His  best  literary  work,  it  is  in  every  respect 
excellent.  The  insight  and  success  of  the  at 
tempt  prove  the  author's  power.  He  wished 
to  write  a  biography,  almost  a  novel.  He 
wished  to  tell  the  story  of  Washington,  his 
family,  his  friends,  his  home,  to  make  him  live 
again — from  birth  to  death — amidst  a  multi 
tude  of  private  and  public  events.  He  man 
aged  it  without  the  reader  experiencing  the 
slightest  sense  of  effort.  The  work  has  charm 
and  strength,  and  that  continuity  which  holds 
the  reader  to  the  last  page.  Mr.  Wilson  could 
have  shown  more  plainly  the  limitations  of  his 
hero,  whose  nature  was  slightly  narrow  and 
dull.  He  saw  them  very  clearly,  and  indicated 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       51 

them  perhaps  sufficiently.  He  was  an  image 
maker  rather  than  a  portrait  painter.  He  de 
sired  to  produce  a  book  wholly  popular  and  na 
tional  after  the  fashion,  in  a  previous  genera 
tion,  of  Thiers  and  Guizot.  This  was  the  task 
he  attempted,  and  he  fulfilled  it  with  entire  suc 
cess. 

Here  is  the  Virginia  in  which  Washington 
was  born.  The  colony  was  formed  by  English 
royalist  families  who  refused  to  bow  down  to 
the  Puritan  revolution,  the  regicides,  and  the 
Commonwealth.  Washington  belonged  to 
these  families,  which  carried  to  America  their 
old  mode  of  life,  their  aristocratic  and  rural 
manners,  their  feeling  for  authority  and  feu 
dalism.  From  the  age  of  twenty  Washington 
administered  and  increased  the  family  estates. 
He  explored  and  surveyed  new  lands  beyond 
the  forests  and  the  mountains.  He  com 
manded  the  militia,  and  fought  against  the 
French  troops  and  the  Indians.  When  the 
London  Parliament  undertook  to  tax  the 
American  colonists,  Washington,  an  English 
gentleman,  felt  that  his  rights  had  been  in 
jured.  The  militia  armed,  and  elected  him 
their  leader.  Washington  had  too  much  hon 
our  to  evade  the  tasks  proposed.  He  accepted, 
and  became  the  general  of  the  new  States  of 
America.  He  was  given  undisciplined  volun- 


52  President  Wilson 

teers.  For  five  years  he  lived  with  them,  cre 
ating  soldiers  and  an  army.  He  was  often 
beaten,  was  never  discouraged.  He  could  not 
imagine  abandoning  the  task  he  had  under 
taken.  He  held  himself  ever  ready  in  the 
case  of  a  supreme  reverse  to  cross  the  moun 
tains  with  the  fragments  of  his  army,  and  to 
retire  to  the  unexplored  depths  and  the  liberty 
of  the  vast  refuges  offered  by  the  American 
continent.  His  constancy  prevailed.  England 
became  weary,  and  the  colonists  were  conquer 
ors  and  free.  Laying  down  their  arms  they 
returned  to  their  workshops  and  their  fields. 
Washington  returned  to  his  own  lands.  The 
task  appeared  to  be  finished.  It  was  not.  The 
liberated  colonists  had  not  been  able  to  consti 
tute  themselves  into  a  state.  They  separated 
and  quarrelled.  Would  America,  like  Europe, 
become  the  sanguinary  arena  of  divided  races  ? 
Or,  on  the  contrary,  would  it  become  a  union 
of  free  and  settled  peoples?  All  the  Ameri 
cans  who  wished  for  the  latter  turned  towards 
the  leader  who  had  commanded  them  as  a 
whole  and  secured  their  freedom.  Washing 
ton  heard  their  appeal.  He  had  never  wished 
to  become  a  conqueror  in  order  to  produce  a 
new  discord  in  the  world.  He  desired  the  es 
tablishment  of  a  strong  and  armed  state.  "We 
are  either  a  united  people,  or  we  are  not  so," 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       53 

cried  Washington.  "If  the  former,  let  us  in 
all  matters  of  general  concern  act  as  a  nation 
which  has  a  national  character  to  support;  if 
we  are  not,  let  us  no  longer  act  a  farce  by  pre 
tending  to  it." 

Some  colonies  were  gravely  troubled.  Ex 
treme  democrats  refused  to  pay  taxes.  Mod 
erate  democrats  hesitated  to  force  them,  and 
wished  to  restore  peace  by  negotiation  and 
diplomatic  influence.  "You  talk,  my  good  sir," 
wrote  Washington  to  one  of  these  moderates 
(Henry  Lee),  "of  employing  influence  to  ap 
pease  the  present  tumults  in  Massachusetts.  I 
know  not  where  that  influence  is  to  be  found, 
or,  if  attainable,  that  it  would  be  a  proper  rem 
edy  for  the  disorders.  Influence  is  no  gov 
ernment.  Let  us  have  one  by  which  our  lives, 
liberties,  and  properties  will  be  secured,  or  let 
us  know  the  worst  at  once." 

Washington  and  his  friends  succeeded  in 
voting  a  new  Constitution.  The  United  States 
of  America  were  given  a  government,  an  army, 
a  justiciary,  a  federal  chief.  Then  came  the 
question  of  selecting  the  first  chief,  the  first 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
The  people,  who  had  the  right  of  election,  knew 
but  a  single  name,  that  of  one  man — Wash 
ington. 

He  governed  for  eight  years,  always  with 


54  President  Wilson 

prudence  and  authority,  and  as  a  stern 
guardian  of  the  laws.  Parliament  and  peo 
ple  often  resisted  him.  When  revolutionary 
France  entered  into  the  fight  against  England 
a  powerful  party  wished  to  ally  itself  with  the 
new  republic.  Washington  did  not  approve  of 
the  French  ideas,  and  opposed  the  alliance.  He 
was  insulted  and  lampooned,  yet  the  injuries 
and  the  caricatures  did  not  diminish  his  pro 
found  popularity.  Proposals  were  made  to 
elect  him  President  for  a  third  term.  He  did 
not  wish  for  further  office,  but  desired  to  re 
tire  and  end  his  life  on  his  own  estates.  So 
far  as  any  man  is  able  to  fulfil  his  task  Wash 
ington  accomplished  his.  For  a  few  years  he 
was  allowed  to  enjoy  the  existence  of  a  country 
gentleman.  It  was  a  life  he  preferred  to  any 
other,  and  only  the  hazards  of  history  had 
troubled  it. 

Such  was  a  career,  of  which  it  has  justly 
been  said  that  it  modified  the  idea  of  human 
greatness.  No  one  has  told  the  story  with 
more  interest  and  more  nobility  than  Mr.  Wil 
son.  He  was  delighted,  it  seems,  to  express 
throughout  his  book  all  that  the  old  world  be 
queathed  of  any  value  to  the  young  American 
nation.  Clearly  Mr.  Wilson  was  persuaded 
of  the  importance  and  the  excellence  of  this 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       55 

legacy.  He  sympathised  with  this  gentleman 
who  had  founded  a  nation  and  resisted  all 
demagogic  enthusiasms.*  And  clearly  Mr. 
Wilson  was  attached  to  old  England  by  thought 
as  well  as  by  blood.  We  must  take  care  not 
to  draw  wrong  inferences  from  this  book 
or  from  university  lectures  presently  to  be 
quoted.  Mr.  Wilson  is  profoundly  an  Amer 
ican,  a  man  renewed  through  contact  with  the 
soil,  with  a  new  atmosphere,  and  ever  ready 
for  innovation.  He  is  the  son  of  an  Amer- 

*Mr.  Wilson  has  no  enthusiasm  for  the  French  Revolution. 
He  allows  this  to  be  seen  in  his  story  of  the  life  of  Wash 
ington,  and  he  expressed  himself  still  more  clearly  in  a 
study  on  "Burke  and  the  French  Revolution"  which  appeared 
in  the  Century  Magazine  for  September,  1901.  I  owe  a 
knowledge  of  this  study  to  the  help  and  vast  reading  of 
M.  Rene  de  Kerallain,  who  resumes  it  as  follows:  "It  is  a 
sincere  eulogy  of  Burke,  and  a  spirited  defence  of  his  atti 
tude  towards  the  French  Revolution.  They  make  a  mistake, 
argued  the  Professor  [as  to  the  President  of  to-day  I  do 
not  know]  who  reproach  Burke  for  having  lost  his  head  and 
not  understanding  that  a  drastic  revolution  was  necessary 
to  purge  France  of  her  abuses.  But  Burke  saw  more  than 
France.  He  saw  in  the  Revolution  'a  revolution  of  doc 
trine  and  theoretic  dogma/  of  rationalism  to  excess,  and  all 
which  logically  follows."  Wilson  pointed  out  the  epidemic 
and  contagious  nature  of  these  principles.  "If  the  French 
revolutionary  doctrines  [he  wrote]  had  taken  root  in  Eng 
land,  what  then?  They  did  not  .  .  ."  Burke,  resisting  as 
he  did,  spoke  the  true  mind  of  England.  And  this  is  the 
conclusion  of  the  article:  "After  you  have  seen  and  done 
your  duty,  then  philosophers  may  talk  of  it,  and  assess  it 
as  they  will.  Burke  was  right,  and  was  himself,  when  he 
sought  to  keep  the  French  infection  out  of  England." 


56  President  Wilson 

ican,  the  grandson  of  an  immigrant,  who,  push 
ing  out  towards  the  West,  founded  his  fortune 
by  the  combined  effort  of  his  brains  and  his 
hands.  He  knew  in  what  manner  his  country 
was  linked  to  the  old  world.  He  knew  exactly 
where  it  changed,  and  commenced  to  be  itself. 
Listen  to  what  he  said,  in  May,  1895,  at  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  the  State  of  New  Jersey: 

"What,  in  fact,  has  been  the  course  of 
American  history?  How  is  it  to  be  distin 
guished  from  European  history?  What  fea 
tures  has  it  of  its  own,  which  give  it  its  distinc 
tive  plan  and  movement?  We  have  suffered, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  a  very  serious  limitation  of 
view  until  recent  years  by  having  all  our  history 
written  in  the  East.  It  has  smacked  strongly 
of  a  local  flavour.  It  has  concerned  itself  too 
strongly  with  the  origins  and  old  world  deriva 
tions  of  our  story.  Our  historians  have  made 
their  march  from  the  sea  with  their  heads  over 
shoulder,  their  gaze  always  backward  upon  the 
landing  places  and  homes  of  the  first  settlers. 
In  spite  of  the  steady  immigration,  with  its  per 
sistent  tide  of  foreign  blood,  they  have  chosen 
to  speak  often  and  to  think  always  of  our  peo 
ple  as  sprung  after  all  from  a  common  stock, 
bearing  a  family  likeness  in  every  branch,  and 
following  all  the  while  old,  familiar  family 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902       57 

ways.  The  view  is  the  more  misleading  be 
cause  it  is  so  large  a  part  of  the  truth  without 
being  all  of  it.  The  common  British  stock  did 
first  make  the  country,  and  has  always  set  the 
pace.  There  were  common  institutions  up 
and  down  the  coast ;  and  these  had  formed  and 
hardened  for  a  persistent  growth  before  the 
great  westward  migration  began,  which  was  to 
reshape  and  modify  every  element  of  our  life. 

"But,  the  beginnings  once  safely  made, 
change  set  in  apace.  .  .  .  Until  they  had 
turned  their  backs  once  for  all  upon  the  sea; 
until  they  saw  our  western  borders  cleared  of 
the  French;  until  the  mountain  passes  had 
grown  familiar,  and  the  lands  beyond  had  be 
come  the  central  and  constant  theme  of  their 
hope,  the  goal  and  dream  of  their  young  men, 
they  did  not  become  an  American  people.  .  .  . 
The  West'  is  the  great  word  of  our  history. 
The  Westerner'  has  been  the  type  and  master 
of  our  American  life." 

Mr.  Wilson  finished  his  speech  by  drawing 
a  vivacious  portrait  of  Lincoln,  the  hero  of  the 
West,  a  son  of  pioneers,  a  wanderer  amidst 
forests  and  over  virgin  waters,  great  by  the 
youthfulness  of  his  intellect  and  heart,  great 
in  his  wisdom,  subtlety,  and  energy.  These 
gifts  of  nature  carried  him  to  the  headship  of 
the  people.  "In  Lincoln  [he  said]  you  have 


58  President  Wilson 

the  type  of  flower  of  our  growth.  It  is  as  if 
Nature  had  made  a  typical  American  and  then 
added  with  liberal  hand  the  royal  quality  of 
genius,  to  show  us  what  the  type  should  be."  * 
Washington  and  Lincoln,  the  two  outstand 
ing  figures  of  the  United  States,  have  both  been 
studied  by  Mr.  Wilson.  Their  glory  was  due 
through  merit.  But  they  deserved  it  by  some 
thing  more  than  their  merit.  By  a  tragic 
chance  these  men  became  at  the  same  time  not 
only  heads  of  the  state  but  also  heads  of  the 
army.  Under  the  direction  of  Washington 
the  Americans  entered  into  the  war  which 
freed  them.  Under  the  direction  of  Lincoln 
they  entered  into  the  civil  war  which  saved  the 
unity,  the  accord,  the  combination  of  the  New 
World.  Led  by  these  two  men  they  sacrificed 
themselves  and  gave  their  children  by  thou- 

*There  is  a  delightful  page  upon  Lincoln  in  the  conversa 
tion  recorded  by  Ida  M.  Tarbell.  "Lincoln  [said  the  Presi 
dent  enthusiastically]  was  the  incarnation  of  what  I  call 
Americanism.  He  began  his  career  as  a  prairie  politician. 
He  came  from  the  rudest  stock.  But  everything  helped  to 
form  him,  inform  him,  transform  him.  He  learned  as  tie 
went  along.  He  arrived,  knew  nothing,  and  suddenly  knew 
everything.  When  he  came  at  first  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
East.  But  from  his  first  speech  he  conquered  it,  as  he  showed 
that  he  understood  it  thoroughly.  Until  the  day  he  was 
made  President  he  lacked  every  attribute  of  a  President. 
He  was  a  man  of  the  people — with  genius.  He  understood 
the  West,  the  conservative  East,  even  the  South.  As  for 
the  North,  no  man  of  the  North  has  understood  it  so  well. 
A  marvellous  person!" 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902        59 

sands.  They  conquered,  and  the  names  of 
their  leaders  reflect  the  immeasurable  glory 
they  had  all  acquired.  Blood  has  always  a 
singular  authority.  It  founds,  consecrates, 
and  dominates  history.  To  these  two  names  a 
third  will  be  added  in  the  future.  Washing 
ton,  Lincoln,  Wilson!  The  first  two  are  to 
day  ideals.  A  century  has  passed,  revealing 
them  as  a  whole,  and  permitting  us  to  judge 
them.  The  first  traditionally  incarnates  the 
age  and  nobility  of  the  race;  the  second,  a 
youthful  renaissance  of  the  race  upon  new  soil, 
the  rough  zest  of  a  pioneer  people.  How  will 
Mr.  Wilson  historically  appear  in  the  future? 
To  the  future  must  be  left  the  liberty  of  its 
judgments.  We  must  remain  content  to  learn 
the  origins  and  development  of  this  strong- 
minded  and  wise  American,  so  different  from 
his  predecessors,  a  man  of  an  intellectual  type 
who  formed  his  character  in  the  New  World 
he  aspired  to  direct. 

High  university  problems,  and  the  history  of 
the  past,  did  not  distract  Mr.  Wilson  from  his 
young  and  living  country.  He  had  political 
ambitions  which  he  did  not  forget.  But  in  the 
year  1897,  marked  by  the  publication  of  his 
biography  of  Washington,  some  events  took 


60  President  Wilson 

place    which    attracted    his    attention.     They 
must  now  be  mentioned. 

Mr.  Cleveland  terminated  his  presidency. 
There  have  been  few  so  interesting  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Cleveland  be 
longed  to  the  Democratic  party,  and,  like  Mr. 
Wilson,  to  the  conservative  section  of  that 
party.  As  a  President  he  had  governed.  He 
was  intrepid,  and  possessed  common  sense.  He 
saw  things  clearly,  and  never  hesitated.  Ex 
terior  problems  he  met  with  considerable  im 
portance,  and  dared  to  determine  them.  He 
peremptorily  stopped  the  imprudent  action  of 
an  American  consul  in  Hawaii.  He  entered 
with  authority  into  an  energetic  action  against 
England  which  wished  to  impose  itself  upon 
Venezuela.  He  addressed  an  ultimatum,  had 
war  credits  voted,  and  compelled  England  to 
accept  the  judgment  of  arbitrators.  He  had 
no  less  resolution  when  faced  by  his  party.  He 
succeeded  in  removing  some  thousands  of  pub 
lic  appointments  from  electoral  influences,  and 
refused  to  follow  a  demagogic  financial  policy. 
This  refusal  broke  his  career,  and  ended  his 
presidency.  Cleveland  was  a  great  man  who 
had  not  been  given  full  scope  by  opportunity. 
But  if  he  did  not  do  great  things,  he  knew  how 
to  give  a  great  example,  and  how  to  break  the 
bonds  which  shackled  the  presidential  office. 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902        61 

The  example  was  not  lost  to  such  an  ardent 
observer  as  Mr.  Wilson.  This  professor,  al 
ready  known  in  America  for  his  useful  books 
and  his  sure  and  firm  speech,  was  in  reality  a 
man  of  action  and  of  self-contained  strength. 
Cleveland's  deeds  interested  him  profoundly. 
He  suddenly  discovered  in  them  the  solution 
of  the  chief  problem  of  American  politics.  He 
had  searched  for  it  in  books  and  foreign  tradi 
tion.  He  thought  he  had  found  it  in  an  imi 
tation  of  British  parliamentarism  disciplined 
by  a  prime  minister,  leader  of  his  party,  and 
head  of  the  government.  But  no  fact  con 
firmed  this  theoretical  suggestion.  With  the 
most  lively  interest  he  observed  the  quite  dif 
ferent  attempt  of  a  practical  politician,  a  presi 
dent  of  the  republic  who  energetically  endeav 
oured  to  render  his  presidency  effective.  In 
March,  1897,  at  the  moment  when  Mr.  Cleve 
land  relinquished  power,  Mr.  Wilson  published 
in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  a  eulogy  of  startling 
warmth.  "It  is  plain  [he  wrote]  that  Mr. 
Cleveland  has  rendered  the  country  great  serv 
ices,  and  that  his  singular  independence  and 
force  of  purpose  have  made  the  real  character 
of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  more 
evident  than  it  ever  was  before.  He  has  been 
the  sort  of  President  the  makers  of  the  Consti 
tution  had  vaguely  in  mind:  more  man  than 


62  President  Wilson 

partisan,  with  an  independent  will  of  his  own; 
hardly  a  colleague  of  the  Houses  so  much  as 
an  individual  servant  of  the  country;  exercis 
ing  his  powers  like  a  chief  magistrate  rather 
than  like  a  party  leader." 

Mr.  Wilson  then  wrote  a  popular  history  of 
the  American  people  of  which  we  are  to  have  a 
French  translation. 

"I  have  written  this  book  in  order  to  teach 
myself  the  history  of  my  country,"  he  said  to 
his  publisher,  in  handing  over  the  manuscript. 

"When,"  replied  the  publisher,  "will  you 
yourself  begin  to  make  history?" 

His  strength  was  being  recognised.  When 
the  need  arose  he  would  be  called  for. 

Mr.  Wilson  told  his  story  from  the  earliest 
days  to  the  present  time.  He  narrates  the  ar 
rival  of  the  first  colonists,  and  passes  to  that 
historical  day  in  April,  1889,  when  the  last 
piece  of  virgin  soil  was  opened  up  to  the  last 
of  the  pioneers,  who,  camped  with  horses  and 
wagons,  waited  behind  the  line  of  sentinels. 
On  April  gth,  at  noon,  to  the  sound  of  the 
bugle,  the  barriers  were  taken  away,  and  a 
rough  crowd  flung  itself  across  the  last  open 
spaces.  In  the  morning  Oklahoma  had  been 
a  desert.  Now  it  had  become  a  state  in  the 
powerful  Union.  Nothing  remained  to  con- 


Essayist  and  Historian,  1890-1902        63 

quer  in  the  interior  of  the  New  World.  About 
the  same  period  the  United  States,  teeming 
with  population,  commenced  to  overflow  and 
to  ebb  towards  the  old  worlds.  Mr.  Wilson 
touched  upon  the  opening  history  of  this  new 
phase,  Hawaii  annexed,  Spain  turned  out  of  a 
still  remaining  possession,  the  Philippines  oc 
cupied.  Mr.  Wilson  enumerated  these  con 
quests,  and  enumerated  them  soberly.  His 
story  has  no  imperialistic  tone,  but  it  is  deeply 
and  strongly  nationalistic.  It  reflects  the  tone 
of  a  statesman  who  knows  history  and  does  not 
shrink  from  new  destinies. 

"Of  a  sudden,  as  it  seemed,  and  without  pre 
meditation,  the  United  States  had  turned  away 
from  their  long-time,  deliberate  absorption  in 
their  own  domestic  development,  from  the  pol 
icy  professed  by  every  generation  of  their 
statesmen  from  the  first,  of  separation  from 
the  embarrassing  entanglements  of  foreign  af 
fairs  ;  had  given  themselves  a  colonial  empire, 
and  taken  their  place  of  power  in  the  field  of 
international  politics.  No  one  who  justly  stud 
ied  the  course  of  their  life  could  reasonably 
wonder  at  the  thing  that  had  happened.  No 
doubt  it  had  come  about  without  premedita 
tion.  There  had  been  no  thought,  when  this 
war  came,  of  sweeping  the  Spanish  islands  of 
far-away  seas  within  the  sovereignty  of  the 


64  President  Wilson 

United  States.  But  Spain's  empire  had  proved 
a  house  of  cards.  When  the  American  power 
touched  it  it  fell  to  pieces.  The  government 
of  Spain's  colonies  had  everywhere  failed  and 
gone  to  hopeless  decay.  It  would  have  been 
impossible,  it  would  have  been  intolerable,  to 
set  it  up  again  where  it  had  collapsed.  A 
quick  instinct  apprised  American  statesmen 
that  they  had  come  to  a  turning  point  in  the 
progress  of  the  nation.  ...  It  had  turned 
from  developing  its  own  resources  to  make  con 
quest  of  the  markets  of  the  world.  .  .  .  The 
spaces  of  their  own  continent  were  occupied 
and  reduced  to  the  uses  of  civilisation;  they 
had  no  frontiers  "to  satisfy  the  feet  of  the 
young  men" ;  these  new  frontiers  in  the  Indies 
and  in  the  far  Pacific  came  to  them  as  if  out 
of  the  very  necessity  of  the  new  career  set  be 
fore  them.  It  was  significant  how  uncritically 
the  people  accepted  the  unlooked  for  conse 
quences  of  the  war,  with  what  naive  enthusi 
asm  they  hailed  the  conquests  of  their  fleet  and 


armies." 


Ill — The  Presidency  of  Princeton 

IN  1902  Mr.  Wilson  was  forty-five  years 
of  age.     He  was  professor  at  Princeton 
University.     He  was  neither  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  nor  a 
Senator.    He  had  made  no  tentatives  in  this  di 
rection,  had  no  ambition  or  aim  in  sight.    Yet 
in  ten  years  he  was  to  be  elected  President  of 
the  Republic  of  the  United  States.     How  was 
such  a  thing  possible?     How  did  he  manage 
it?     A  Frenchman,  knowing  only  the  methods 
of  the  French  democracy,  finds  more  here  than 
he  can  easily  explain  or  understand. 

In  France  politics  are  actually  a  profession, 
requiring  youthful  apprenticeship  and  the 
whole  devotion  of  a  life.  The  politician  ad 
vances  from  one  step  to  another,  and  our  presi 
dents  (save  one,  Marshal  MacMahon,  who  was 
from  every  point  of  view  an  exception)  have 
constantly  been  parliamentary  old  stagers.  It 
is  not  the  same  with  the  American  presidents. 
Parliamentary  influence  is  exercised  in  their 
election,  and  with  much  force,  but  it  does  not 
determine  or  dominate  it.  The  president  is 
named  by  the  people,  and  the  popularity  of  the 

65 


66  President  Wilson 

parliamentarians  is  not  so  great,  nor  is  their 
prestige  so  high,  that  they  are  able  to  impose 
upon  the  masses  their  own  choice.  In  the 
States  the  political  parties  are  well  organised 
and  very  strong.  They  select  the  candidates. 
And  often,  in  order  to  increase  their  chances  of 
success,  they  avoid  picking  out  exhausted  pro 
fessional  politicians,  and,  going  outside  the  cir 
cle,  seek  men  of  repute  and  respect,  new  names 
which  are  likely  to  appeal  to  the  voters.  We 
are  speaking  here  more  particularly  of  the 
presidential  candidates,  but  the  same  remarks 
apply  to  the  governorships  of  the  states.  Each 
of  the  forty-eight  states  forming  as  a  whole 
the  United  States  is  free  within  its  own  bor 
ders  and  able  to  elect  its  own  Governor. 
State  Governors  and  President  of  the  Repub 
lic  are  both  important  and  eminent  offices  em 
bracing  political  functions  which  escape  the 
personal  influences  of  the  politicians,  and  thus 
enable  university  professors,  soldiers,  and  even 
leaders  of  industry  to  entertain  high  political 
hopes.  If  this  position  is  not  at  once  under 
stood  it  is  not  possible  to  understand  the  course 
Mr.  Wilson  has  taken  in  his  career. 

In  1902  the  Presidency  of  Princeton  Uni 
versity  was  vacant.  The  presidency  of  a  uni 
versity  is  an  office  to  which  we  can  offer  no 
analogy.  The  New  World  astonishes  us  at 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton          67 

every  fresh  step.  The  American  universities 
are  great  free  corporations  uncontrolled  by 
uniform  laws.  They  make  their  own  laws, 
and  are  self-governing.  Their  existence  is  like 
that  of  a  financial  company  or  an  industrial 
trust.  They  have  rich  'patrons  who  give  them 
money  and  are  in  some  respects  the  owners  of 
the  stock  of  the  business.  These  patrons  and 
protectors  form  a  council  which  nominates  a 
head.  He  is  the  president  of  the  university. 
According  to  American  tradition  he  is  allowed 
great  power,  because  many  of  the  patrons,  be 
ing  men  of  business,  know  that  one  condition 
of  success  is  the  liberty  and  responsibility  of 
the  directing  head.  A  President  of  Univer 
sity,  educator  of  five  or  six  thousand  youths, 
master  of  a  royal  domain,  of  schools,  muse 
ums,  and  lands,  exercises  a  kind  of  intellectual 
magistrature  which  renders  him  comparable  to 
the  bishops  of  an  older  Europe.  We  have  al 
ready  referred  to  the  prestige  enjoyed  by  the 
professors  of  a  university.  The  president 
finds  himself  in  a  truly  eminent  position.  He 
has  the  right — almost  the  duty — to  give  an 
opinion  upon  all  the  moral  and  intellectual 
questions  which  occupy  the  country.  "No  per 
sons  in  the  country,"  wrote  Bryce  in  his  work 
upon  the  United  States,  "hardly  even  the  great 
est  railway  magnates,  are  better  known,  and 


68  President  Wilson 

certainly  none  are  more  respected,  than  the 
presidents  of  the  leading  universities,  Harvard, 
Yale,  Cornell,  or  Princeton.  .  .  ." 

What  president  were  the  administrators  of 
Princeton  going  to  elect?  Until  then  the  con 
stant  tradition  had  been  to  choose  a  reverend 
pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Amongst 
its  faculties  the  University  included  a  theolog 
ical  school.  As  it  educated  the  clergy  it 
seemed  proper  to  continue  as  a  whole  under  re 
ligious  influence.  However,  the  temptation 
was  great  to  select  this  Professor  Wilson,  who 
had  much  authority  over  his  pupils,  and  who 
had  also  acquired  by  diverse  means  a  strong 
hold  upon  the  public.  Professor  Wilson  did 
not  allure,  but  he  attracted.  He  had  few 
friends — it  might  even  be  said  that  he  was  not 
personally  known.  But  he  had  some  admir 
ers.  Though  distant  in  manner  he  was  not 
unsociable.  His  tall  figure,  which  lacked 
neither  dignity  nor  ease,  appeared  at  various 
gatherings.  He  knew  how  to  be  amiable  with 
women,  had  indeed  a  taste  for  amiability  in  that 
respect,  for  their  conversation  alone  was  sought 
by  him.  In  everything  he  understood  he  gave 
constantly  an  impression  of  at  least  perfect  ca 
pacity  if  not  of  high  superiority.  He  was  will 
ing  to  accept  the  appointment.  He  obtained 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton          69 

it,  and  became  President  of  Princeton  Univer 
sity. 

Upon  entering  office  he  delivered  an  inaug 
ural  address,  in  which  he  defined  the  task  of  a 
university : 

"The  college  is  not  for  the  majority  who 
carry  forward  the  common  labour  of  the  world, 
nor  even  for  those  who  work  at  the  skilled 
handicrafts  which  multiply  the  conveniences 
and  the  luxuries  of  the  complex  modern  life. 
It  is  for  the  minority  who  plan,  who  conceive, 
who  superintend,  who  mediate  between  group 
and  group,  and  who  must  see  the  wide  stage  as 
a  whole.  Democratic  nations  must  be  served 
in  this  wise  no  less  than  those  whose  leaders 
are  chosen  by  birth  and  privilege ;  and  the  col 
lege  is  no  less  democratic  because  it  is  for  those 
who  play  a  special  part.  .  .  . 

"There  are  two  ways  of  preparing  a  young 
man  for  his  life  work.  One  is  to  give  him  the 
skill  and  special  knowledge  which  shall  make 
a  good  tool,  an  excellent  bread-winning  tool, 
of  him;  and  for  thousands  of  young  men  that 
way  must  be  followed.  It  is  a  good  way.  It 
is  honourable.  It  is  indispensable.  But  it  is 
not  for  the  college,  and  it  can  never  be.  The 
college  should  seek  to  make  the  men  whom  it 
receives  something  more  than  excellent  serv 
ants  of  a  trade  or  skilled  practitioners  of  a 


70  President  Wilson 

profession.  It  should  give  them  elasticity  of 
faculty  and  breadth  of  vision,  so  that  they 
shall  have  a  surplus  of  mind  to  expend,  not 
upon  their  profession  only,  for  its  liberalisa 
tion  and  enlargement,  but  also  upon  the  broader 
interests  which  lie  about  them,  in  the  spheres 
in  which  they  are  to  be,  not  breadwinners 
merely,  but  citizens  as  well,  and  in  their  own 
hearts,  where  they  are  to  grow  to  the  stature 
of  real  nobility.  It  is  this  free  capital  of  mind 
the  world  most  stands  in  need  of, — this  free 
capital  that  awaits  investment  in  undertak 
ings,  spiritual  as  wrell  as  material,  which  ad 
vance  the  race  and  help  all  men  to  a  better 
life." 

To  discipline,  to  form,  to  enlarge  the  mind — 
such  is  the  task  of  a  university.  And,  in  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Wilson,  there  is  no  better  in 
strument  for  this  task  than  the  classical  lan 
guages  of  antiquity. 

"They  are  disciplinary  only  because  of  their 
definiteness  and  their  established  method;  and 
they  take  their  determinateness  from  their  age 
and  perfection.  It  is  their  age  and  complete 
ness  that  render  them  so  serviceable  and  so 
suitable  for  the  first  processes  of  education. 
By  this  means  the  boy  is  informed  of  the  bodies 
of  knowledge  which  are  not  experimental  but 
settled,  definite,  fundamental.  This  is  the 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton          71 

stock  upon  which  time  out  of  mind  all  the 
thoughtful  world  has  traded.  These  have  been 
food  of  the  mind  for  long  generations.  .  .  .* 

"Drill  in  mathematics  stands  in  the  same 
category  with  familiar  knowledge  of  the 
thought  and  speech  of  classical  antiquity,  be 
cause  in  them  also  we  get  the  life-long  ac 
cepted  discipline  of  the  race.  .  .  .  Here,  too, 
as  in  the  classics,  is  a  definitive  body  of  knowl 
edge  and  of  reason,  a  discipline  which  has 
been  made  test  of  through  long  generations,  a 
method  of  thought  which  has  in  all  ages 
steadied,  perfected,  enlarged,  strengthened, 
and  given  precision  to  the  powers  of  the  mind. 
Mathematical  drill  is  an  introduction  of  the 
boy's  mind  to  the  most  definitely  settled  ra 
tional  experience  of  the  world." 

Such  were  his  general  ideas,  and  Mr.  Wil 
son  knew  how  to  draw  the  moral.  He  opened 
his  work,  and  commenced  to  exercise  for  the 
first  time  that  extraordinary  faculty  for  pro- 

*Mr.  Wilson  never  loses  an  occasion  to  assert  his  faith 
in  the  educative  value  of  the  classics.  The  Outlook,  for 
June  13,  1917,  gives  an  account  of  a  conference  held  at 
Princeton  on  the  place  of  the  classics  in  a  liberal  education. 
Messrs.  Taft,  Roosevelt,  and  Wilson  sent  messages  to  the 
conference  in  favour  of  classical  studies.  "We  must  not 
reject,"  wrote  the  President,  "the  wisdom  of  which  we  are  the 
heirs,  and  seek  our  fortunes  with  the  slender  baggage  we 
have  accumulated.  We  ought  rather,  as  much  as  we  are 
able,  to  insist  upon  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  classics." 


72  President  Wilson 

ducing  reforms  which  characterises  all  his  ac 
tivities. 

Princeton  University  had  serious  need  of 
being  taken  in  hand.  Discipline  was  vacillat 
ing,  and  study  feeble.  Mr.  Wilson  looked  into 
everything.  His  first  care  was  the  examina 
tions,  which  he  made  more  severe.  He  got  rid 
of  the  incapables.  This  was  but  the  begin 
ning.  He  then  occupied  himself  with  the 
courses  of  study,  which  were  revised  in  a  dras 
tic  manner.  The  modernists  in  the  university 
had  suppressed  the  obligatory  subjects  of  clas 
sics  and  mathematics.  They  had  introduced 
an  optional  system  which  gave  the  young  men 
the  liberty  to  follow  agreeable  and  easy 
courses.  Before  they  were  twenty  years  old 
they  were  asked  to  make  a  most  difficult  choice. 
Mr.  Wilson  reformed  this  system.  "No  doubt 
we  must  make  choice  among  them,  and  suffer 
the  pupil  himself  to  make  choice,"  he  said  in 
his  inaugural  address.  "But  the  choice  that 
we  make  must  be  the  chief  choice,  the  choice 
the  pupil  makes  the  subordinate  choice.  We 
must  supply  the  synthesis  and  must  see  to  it 
that,  whatever  group  of  studies  the  student 
selects,  it  shall  at  least  represent  the  round 
whole,  and  contain  all  the  elements  of  modern 
knowledge."  He  outlined  his  views,  and  had 
them  adopted.  Neglecting  the  details,  his  sys- 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton          73 

tern  may  be  summarily  stated  that  each  stu 
dent  had  to  take  at  least  five  courses  of  study, 
two  obligatory  and  three  within  his  personal 
selection. 

But  the  best  programmes  are  of  little  avail 
if  the  methods  of  work  are  defective.  Mr. 
Wilson  reformed  these  methods.  The  young 
men  sat  at  the  lectures  from  two  to  three  hours 
a  day.  They  were  then  left  to  their  own  de 
vices,  to  reading,  to  sport.  They  were  not 
guided,  and  had  contact  with  their  teachers 
only  during  the  short  and  not  very  effective 
lectures.  Mr.  Wilson  proposed  a  new  system, 
the  creation  of  little  groups  of  students  in  asso 
ciation  with  a  tutor  or  assistant  master  who 
would  direct  the  work  by  regular  conversa 
tions,  by  common  research  after  the  manner 
of  the  German  universities.  "If  we  could  get 
a  body  of  such  tutors  at  Princeton,"  he  said, 
"we  could  transform  the  place  from  a  place 
where  there  are  youngsters  doing  tasks  to  a 
place  where  there  are  men  doing  thinking,  men 
who  are  conversing  about  the  things  of 
thought,  men  who  are  eager  and  interested  in 
the  things  of  thought."  Mr.  Wilson  under 
took  to  form  such  a  body,  and  succeeded.  He 
recruited  a  hundred  distinguished  and  ad 
vanced  scholars  and  installed  them  in  his  Uni 
versity.  He  looked  for  them  himself,  and 


President  Wilson 


found  them  in  the  United  States  and  in  Eng 
land.  Two  came  from  France,  and  two  from 
Germany. 

The  best  method  of  work  is  valueless  if  con 
centration  is  lacking  and  application  absent. 
Mr.  Wilson's  project  was  a  radical  reform, 
which  he  introduced  little  by  little.  "If  to  seek 
to  go  to  the  root  is  to  be  a  radical,  a  radical  I 
am,"  he  said  one  day  with  force.  He  soon 
proved  it.  The  Princeton  students  lived  dis 
persed  in  the  lodgings  and  boarding  houses  of 
the  neighbourhood.  Men  of  the  first  and  sec 
ond  years  formed  themselves  into  very  exclu 
sive  and  jealous  circles.  American  society, 
with  its  slight  equality,  tends  to  assume  this 
attitude.  Men  of  the  third  and  fourth  years, 
or  at  least  a  proportion  of  them,  a  chosen 
prime,  lived  in  magnificently  fitted  clubs.  Mr. 
Wilson  decided  that  students  of  the  first  and 
second  years  should  re-enter  the  university 
buildings  to  live  there  in  fellowship  with  their 
tutors  according  to  the  plan  followed  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge.  The  change  "'as  considerable, 
and  he  succeeded  in  making  it. 

His  reforming  ambitions  were  not  yet  satis 
fied.  He  wished  to  go  farther,  always  far 
ther,  and  to  insist  upon  the  whole  of  the  stu 
dents  —  those  of  the  third  and  fourth  years  as 
well  as  those  of  the  first  and  second  —  return- 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton          75 

ing  to  the  university  establishments.  This  en 
tailed  the  diminution  and  suppression  of  these 
great  clubs,  so  rich  and  proud,  and  strong  in 
many  friendships.  Their  existence  troubled 
his  authoritative  spirit  which  sought  for  unity. 
Without  a  doubt  it  offended  some  old  puritan 
inclination  toward  equality  which  existed  in 
his  character.  From  the  day  he  took  the  presi 
dency  of  Princeton  in  hand  (asserts  his  biog 
rapher,  Mr.  H.  Wilson  Harris)  he  had  pre 
meditated  the  destruction  of  these  clubs.  "The 
colleges  of  this  country  must  be  reconstructed 
from  top  to  bottom,  and  America  is  going  to 
demand  it." 

Did  he  speak  as  a  university  professor  or  as 
a  magistrate?  It  is  a  new  voice,  a  magistral 
voice,  and  beneath  the  President  of  Princeton 
appears  the  future  President  of  the  United 
States.  In  1906,  when  he  spoke  in  this  manner, 
Mr.  Wilson  was  considering  for  the  first  time 
with  real  precision  the  career  in  front  of  him. 
In  1909  President  Roosevelt's  term  of  office 
expired,  and  his  successor  would  be  designated 
in  1908.  Mr.  Wilson  asked  himself  if  he  could 
not  be  this  successor,  and  prepared  his  candi 
dature.  It  was  an  early  experiment,  for  Mr. 
Wilson  soon  recognised  that  the  Democratic 
party,  to  which  he  belonged,  would  again  pro 
pose  the  popular  orator  Bryan.  He  waited. 


76  President  Wilson 

But  there  awoke  in  him  an  agitating  strain 
which  could  be  extinguished  no  longer,  and 
which  was  little  in  tune  with  his  characteristic 
university  prudence  and  caution.  This  feeling 
was  one  of  vehemence  and  passion,  which 
seemed  to  come  to  him  from  a  larger,  freer  ex 
istence.  American  public  life  was  disturbed 
at  that  moment.  Animated  by  the  petulance 
of  speeches  against  plutocracy,  President 
Roosevelt  excited  and  set  fire  to  the  national 
soul.  This  must  be  remembered  in  order  to 
understand  Mr.  Wilson's  ardent  initiatives 
within  his  university. 

Mr.  Wilson  prepared  his  reforms  in  silence. 
This  is  a  custom  from  which  he  has  never  de 
parted.  When  he  takes  counsel  it  is  in  secret. 
In  June,  1907,  he  read  to  his  administrative 
board  a  scheme  of  total  reconstruction  of  the 
old  university.  New  buildings  were  to  be 
erected  to  correspond  to  the  needs  of  a  new 
organisation.  All  the  students  would  live  with 
their  tutors  under  the  same  roof.  The  au 
thority  of  his  office,  together  with  that  of  his 
personality,  were  such  that  the  board  adopted 
the  project  at  once.  But  soon  it  became  public, 
and  opposition  became  manifest.  There  was  a 
cry  of  indignation.  The  older  members,  those 
alumni,  whose  gifts  had  given  life  to  the  Uni 
versity,  did  not  wish  the  clubs  in  which  they 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton          77 

had  once  lived,  and  which  now  sheltered  their 
sons,  to  be  touched.  Many  approached  the  ad 
ministrative  body.  Others  announced  their  in 
tention  of  withdrawing  their  financial  aid. 
The  board  could  not  resist  the  clamour.  In 
October  they  asked  their  President  to  with 
draw  his  scheme.  Mr.  Wilson  was  obliged  to 
consent.  But  he  specifically  stated  that  he  re 
tained  his  views,  and  that  he  would  not  cease 
to  fight  his  opponents.  "It  was  then  that  I 
met  Wall  Street  for  the  first  time/'  he  is  re 
ported  as  saying  in  conversation.  "And  I  saw 
for  myself  the  manner  in  which  Wall  Street 
opposes  everything  that  is  attempted  for  the 
good  of  the  country." 

Leaving  for  an  instant  a  fight  by  no  means 
ended,  we  will  turn  to  a  book,  produced  in  a 
most  elegant  typographical  form,  which  Mr. 
Wilson  published  in  1908.  He  entitled  it  "The 
Free  Life/'  and  the  contents  are  a  farewell 
with  last  wishes  that  Mr.  Wilson  addressed  to 
the  young  men  who  quitted  Princeton  after 
four  years  of  study.  This  adieu  is  in  the  form 
of  a  sermon.  Such  is  the  tradition  of  the  place, 
he  observed,  and  its  observance  is  easy  to  him. 
As  a  child  he  had  often  listened  to  his  father's 
preaching.  At  once  he  announces  his  text: 
"And  be  not  conformed  to  this  world:  but  be 


o 


78  President  Wilson 

ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  mind, 
that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good,  and  ac 
ceptable,  and  perfect  will  of  God."  (Romans 
xii:2.)  A  mystical  text,  impregnated  with  the 
spirit  of  St.  Paul,  which  is  the  very  spirit  of 
Christian  protestantism.  "Be  not  conformed.'' 
.  .  .  These  churches,  which  in  the  face  of  the 
Anglican  church  have  heard  and  remembered 
these  words,  retain  them  as  their  title  of  no 
bility.  They  maintain  a  spirit  of  separation, 
of  Christian  protestation,  and  recognise  each 
other  as  sisters  by  their  common  characteristic 
— nonconformity.  "Be  not  conformed.  .  .  ." 
This  is  the  advice  Mr.  Wilson  gives  to  these 
young  men.  They  must  listen  to  themselves, 
remain  faithful  to  themselves. 

"It  is  not  a  thing  remote,  obscure,  poetical, 
but  a  very  real  thing,  that  lives  in  the  con 
sciousness  of  every  one  of  us.  Every  thought 
ful  man,  every  man  not  merely  of  vagrant 
mind,  has  been  aware,  not  once,  but  many 
times,  of  some  unconquerable  spirit  that  he 
calls  himself,  which  is  struggling  against  being 
overborne  by  circumstances,  against  being 
forced  into  conformity  with  things  his  heart  is 
not  in,  things  which  seem  to  deaden  him  and 
deprive  him  of  his  natural  independence  and 
integrity,  so  that  his  individuality  is  lost  and 
merged  into  some  common,  indistinguishable 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton          79 

mass,  the  nameless  multitudes  of  a  world  that 
ceaselessly  shifts  and  alters  and  is  never  twice 
the  same.  He  feels  instinctively  that  the  only 
victory  lies  in  nonconformity.  He  must  ad 
just  himself  to  these  things  that  come  and  go 
and  have  no  base  or  principle,  but  he  must  not 
be  subdued  by  them  or  lose  his  own  clear  lines 
of  chosen  action." 

"Be  not  conformed.  ...  Be  yourselves.  .  .  ." 
We  know  the  formula,  and  many  others  which 
spring  from  it.  They  are  old,  and,  to  their  age 
and  the  abundance  of  deeds  they  suggest,  they 
owe  an  extreme  malleability.  Ibsen  has  drawn 
from  them  anarchistic  morals.  Mr.  Wilson 
makes  use  of  them  to  teach  a  very  different 
moral.  This  descendant  of  the  puritans,  living 
in  the  magnificent  establishment  over  which  he 
presides,  amongst  classical  buildings,  shelter 
ing  groves,  soft  resting  places,  amidst  the  si 
lence  and  the  luxury  of  an  American  univer 
sity,  cannot  shut  his  eyes  to  the  moral.  "Be 
not  conformed  to  the  world,  to  the  usages  of 
the  world  .  .  ."  he  says  to  the  young  men  on 
the  point  of  departure.  He  speaks  to  them  not 
as  a  mystic  but  as  a  scholar.  The  world  he 
warns  these  youths  to  be  careful  of  is  New 
York  and  Wall  Street;  the  worlds  of  politics, 
finance,  industry,  the  saloons,  the  party,  the 
o4ub.  It  is  the  whole  secular  world.  "Be  ye 


80  President  Wilson 

transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  mind," 
he  cries.  The  views  of  a  great  scholar,  of  a 
great  teacher,  are  worthy  of  attention.  Renew 
your  minds.  What  Wilson  meant  was :  do  not 
forget  the  four  years  you  terminate  to-day,  and 
that  you  have  been  living  in  familiarity  with 
thought  and  the  eternal. 

"For  four  years  you  have  been  given  an  op 
portunity  to  get  the  offing  and  perspective  of 
books,  of  the  truths  which  are  of  no  age,  but 
run  unbroken  and  unaltered  throughout  the 
changeful  life  of  all  ages.  You  know  the  long 
measurements,  the  high  laws  by  which  the 
world's  progress  has  ever  been  gauged  and  as 
sessed, — laws  of  sound  thinking  and  pure  mo 
tive  which  seem  to  lie  apart  in  calm  regions 
which  passion  cannot  disturb,  into  whose  pure 
air  wander  no  mists  or  confusions  or  threats 
of  storm.  Amidst  every  altered  aspect  of  time 
and  circumstance  the  human  heart  has  re 
mained  unchanged.  No  doubt  there  were  sim 
pler  ages,  when  the  things  which  now  perplex 
us  in  hope  and  conduct  seemed  very  plain.  If 
life  confuses  us  now,  no  doubt  it  is  because  we 
do  not  see  it  simply  and  see  it  whole.  Look 
back  more  often,  and  you  shall  find  your  vision 
adjusted  for  the  look  ahead/' 

It  is  not  the  appeal  of  an  apostle,  but  the  ad 
vice  of  a  wise  platonist.  The  apostle  never 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton         81 

said:  "Look  behind,  consult  the  eternal  experi 
ence/'  He  did  say:  "Look  towards  God,  fol 
low  the  revelation  of  the  absolute/'  But  the 
Anglo-Saxon  spirit  is  clever  to  adapt  itself  to 
all  things,  to  give  heed  to  them,  and  to  utilise 
them  to  the  best  purpose.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
spirit  is  practical,  and  makes  everything  serve 
its  purpose.  "Reflections  like  these  [wrote 
Mr.  Wilson]  seem  to  spring  naturally  to  the 
thought  out  of  the  words  of  Scripture  counsel 
I  have  read/'  And  his  discourse  goes  on,  con 
tinuing  serenely  to  combine  a  platonistic  para 
phrase  with  an  evangelical  text.  Transform 
your  minds,  he  says ;  transform  them  by  knowl 
edge.  Knowledge  gives  eternal  youth.  Trans 
form  them  by  friendship.  Friendship  is  a 
royal  gift,  and  the  nobility  of  the  soul.  Knowl 
edge  and  Friendship  are  to  be  found  in  the 
university. 

"The  transformed  university  man,  whose 
thought  and  will  have  been  in  fact  renewed 
out  of  the  sources  of  knowledge  and  of  love,  is 
one  of  the  great  dynamic  forces  of  the  world. 
We  live  in  an  age  disturbed,  confused,  bewil 
dered.  .  .  .  There  are  many  voices  of  counsel, 
but  few  voices  of  wisdom;  there  is  much  ex 
citement  and  feverish  activity,  but  little  con 
cert  of  thoughtful  purpose.  We  are  distressed 
by  our  own  ungoverned,  undirected  energies, 


82  President  Wilson 

and  do  many  things  but  nothing  long.  It  is 
our  duty  to  find  ourselves.  It  is  our  privilege 
to  be  calm  and  know  that  the  truth  has  not 
changed,  that  old  wisdom  is  more  to  be  desired 
than  any  new  nostrum,  that  we  must  neither 
run  with  the  crowd  nor  deride  it,  but  seek  sober 
counsel  for  it  and  for  ourselves." 

We  shall  not  hear  this  language  long.  The 
University  will  disappear  before  politics  and 
the  magistrature.  On  March  9,  1909,  Mr. 
Wilson  spoke  at  the  annual  banquet  of  the 
Civic  League  of  St.  Louis.  "The  older  I  be 
come  [he  said]  the  less  and  less  fit  I  am  to 
speak  at  banquets  for  I  become  more  and  more 
serious.  I  consider  some  of  my  friends  with  a 
hopeless  envy.  They  are  so  measured  in  tone, 
so  cold.  Their  judgments  are  always  so  sepa 
rate  from  the  active  movements  which  animate 
them.  As  for  myself,  the  older  I  become,  the 
more  I  become  ardent.  .  .  ."  This  was  evident 
at  Princeton  where  the  old  combat  was  still  un- 
extinguished. 

It  became  public.  The  New  York  journals 
commented  upon  it,  and  polemics  commenced 
to  which  Mr.  Wilson  did  not  seem  to  be  a 
stranger.  The  conflict  at  last  assumed  the 
singular  form  of  a  kind  of  duel  between  an 
isolated  leader,  almost  at  variance  with  his  ad- 


The  Presidency  of  Princeton         83 

ministrative  board,  and  some  millionaire  pa 
trons.  In  1909  a  gift  of  250,000  dollars  was 
offered  to  the  University  upon  the  condition 
that  the  sum  should  be  expended  upon  the  con 
struction  of  a  graduate  school.  The  question 
arose  as  to  the  plans  of  the  proposed  school. 
Mr.  Wilson  still  adhered  to  his  old  scheme, 
which  had  been  adjourned  but  not  rejected. 
Certain  of  the  terms  specified  by  the  donor  he 
considered  contrary  to  his  own  ideas,  and  he 
asked  that  the  gift  be  refused.  "When  the 
country  is  looking  to  us  as  men  who  prefer 
ideas  even  to  money/'  he  asked,  "are  we  going 
to  withdraw  and  say,  'After  all,  we  find  we 
were  mistaken:  we  prefer  money  to  ideas'?'* 
He  came  into  collision  with  a  very  lively  oppo 
sition,  and  triumphed.  The  gift  was  refused. 
His  victory  did  not  last  long.  Hardly  had 
he  disembarrassed  himself  of  this  offer  of  a 
quarter  of  a  million  dollars  than  a  new  offer 
of  3,000,000  dollars  was  thrown  at  him.  Im 
mediately  the  rejected  quarter  of  a  million  was 
brought  into  the  charge,  and  the  gift  again 
tendered.  There  were  too  many  millions! 
Mr.  Wilson  gave  way  beneath  the  burden,  and 
prepared  to  quit  this  presidency  where  he  was 
at  last  conquered.  But  the  defeat  was  not  a 
humiliation,  and,  unharmed,  he  carried  his 
ideas  elsewhere. 


IV — The  Government  of  New  Jersey 

WITHOUT  a  doubt  Mr.  Wilson  con 
sidered  from  this  time  the  possi 
bility  of  becoming  President  of 
the  United  States.  Perhaps  we 
may  take  as  a  kind  of  programme  the  inter 
esting  addresses  he  delivered  in  1907,  and  pub 
lished  in  May,  1908  (a  few  months  before 
the  presidential  election  of  Mr.  Taft),  upon 
"Constitutional  Government  in  the  United 
States."  These  vigorous  and  concise  lectures 
have  a  double  interest.  They  give  an  excellent 
outline  of  the  American  political  organisation, 
and  also  form  a  masterly  exposition  of  the 
ideas  of  the  man  who  was  soon  to  direct  this 
organisation  with  all  the  strength  of  his  will. 
These  lectures  present  us  with  a  sort  of  new 
edition,  very  virile  and  ripened,  of  the  youth 
ful  "Congressional  Government."  In  both 
books  Mr.  Wilson  examines  the  House  of 
Representatives,  the  Senate,  the  Courts  of  Jus 
tice,  the  Presidency,  the  Parties,  what  they 
are,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  work.  He 
concerns  himself  less  with  the  written  law  and 
more  with  the  actual  practice.  He  interests 

84 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey       85 

himself  greatly  in  what  is,  but  still  more  so  in 
what  is  preparing,  and  what  is  going  to  be. 
An  ardent  and  reforming  zeal  incites  his  ob 
servations.  A  political  constitution,  he  tells 
us,  is  not  a  machine  put  together  once  for  all, 
the  subject  of  a  definition  or  a  mathematical 
demonstration.  A  political  constitution  is  a 
living  thing,  and  its  study  must  be  approached 
not  in  a  mathematical  or  Newtonian  spirit,  as 
did  the  old  theorists  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
but  in  a  vital  and  Darwinian  spirit,  with  a  con 
stant  care  to  disclose  the  parts  which  are  hid 
den,  those  which  strengthen,  those  which 
modify.  "Constitutions,"  he  said  loftily,  "are 
what  politicians  make  them."  But  there  exists 
in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  one 
part  which  ought  to  be  strong.  This  is  the 
Presidency.  Cleveland  commenced  an  evolu 
tion  which  Roosevelt  continued.  The  Presi 
dents  of  the  nineteenth  century  selected  their 
ministers  from  amongst  the  more  eminent  poli 
ticians.  Cleveland  at  first,  and  then  Roosevelt 
following,  changed  the  practice.  They  consid 
ered  that  the  ministers  grouped  round  the 
President  should  form  a  body  of  personal  ad 
visers,  and  that  the  President  was  in  a  posi 
tion  to  pick  them  from  amongst  those  who  pos 
sessed  his  personal  confidence  and  whose  ad 
vice  he  preferred.  Cleveland  at  first,  and  then 


86  President  Wilson 

Roosevelt,  wished  to  bring  into  association  men 
whose  power  of  work  had  been  proved  not  only 
in  public  but  also  in  private  life,  as,  for  in 
stance,  bankers  who  had  never  sat  upon  the 
committee  of  any  political  party,  lawyers  who 
had  stood  aside  from  politics,  administrators 
who  had  succeeded  in  the  direction  of  public 
services.  Their  attitude  was  as  if  the  Presi 
dent  alone  had  a  public  function,  the  ministers 
being  but  privy  councillors,  the  collaborators 
of  his  choice. 

This  was  not  the  only  modification  which  in 
creased  the  presidential  office.  Everything 
seemed  concurrently  to  further  its  aggrandise 
ment.  The  increasing  difficulty  and  complica 
tion  of  foreign  affairs,  in  which  the  President 
possesses  almost  quasi-sovereign  powers,  gave 
him  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  the  figure  of  lead 
ership.  His  messages  to  Congress,  in  the  old 
days  very  rare  and  quite  unheeded,  now  be 
came  through  this  prestige  most  important 
documents  of  great  weight  with  public  opin 
ion.  The  President  thus  acquired  a  power  of 
direction  and  initiative,  which,  added  to  the 
right  of  veto  given  to  him  by  the  Constitution, 
completely  armed  him.  The  foundation  of  his 
power  is  national  assent,  and  it  is  limited  only 
by  this  assent.  "The  President  is  at  liberty 
[wrote  Mr.  Wilson]  both  in  law  and  con- 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey       87 

science,  to  be  as  big  a  man  as  he  can.  His 
capacity  will  set  the  limit;  and  if  Congress  be 
overborne  by  him,  it  will  be  no  fault  of  the 
makers  of  the  Constitution, — it  will  be  from 
no  lack  of  constitutional  powers  on  its  part, 
but  only  because  the  President  has  the  nation 
behind  him,  and  Congress  has  not.  He  has  no 
means  of  compelling  Congress  except  through 
public  opinion." 

One  danger  threatened  the  office,  a  danger 
menacing  enough  to  become  overwhelming  and 
crushing  upon  those  who  held  it.  It  seemed 
that  the  entire  nation  fixed  its  gaze  upon  their 
President  and  awaited  his  words.  Upon  every 
question,  no  matter  what  technicality  was  in 
volved,  military,  economic,  or  legislative,  the 
President's  knowledge  and  judgment  were 
called  for.  He  must  know  every  problem,  and 
be  able  to  satisfy  every  anxiety.  "Men  of  or 
dinary  physique  and  discretion  [wrote  Mr. 
Wilson]  cannot  be  Presidents  and  live  if  the 
strain  be  not  somehow  relieved.  We  shall  be 
obliged  always  to  be  picking  our  chief  magis 
trates  from  among  wise  and  prudent  athletes 
— a  small  class." 

However,  he  was  ready.  He  did  not  speak 
or  make  proclamation.  He  did  not  needlessly 
advertise  his  vocation.  But  it  existed  and 


88  President  Wilson 

pressed  him  forward,  and  was  not  likely  to 
disappear.  He  conducted  himself  like  a  "wise 
and  prudent  athlete,"  and  planned  his  life  se 
dately.  His  time  as  a  University  President 
had  not  been  lost.  He  had  acquired  a  useful 
celebrity  as  a  radical  Democrat.  He  entered 
actively  into  political  conflicts,  and  the  fight 
he  had  had  with  his  administrative  board  had 
rendered  him  popular.  What  would  be  his 
next  step?  We  are  at  the  beginning  of  the 
summer  of  1910.  At  Princeton  the  conserva 
tive  coalition,  the  plutocratic  alumni,  had  been 
victorious.  Mr.  Wilson  had  to  seek  occupa 
tion  elsewhere.  The  presidential  election  was 
timed  for  1912.  Would  Mr.  Wilson  stand  as 
a  candidate?  Possibly.  Mr.  Taft,  the  then 
President,  was  a  capable  and  honest  official 
who  lacked  strength.  He  most  certainly  would 
not  be  re-elected.  Undoubtedly  Mr.  Roose 
velt  would  present  himself.  What  chance  had 
he  of  election?  His  interesting  and  oscillating 
personality  occupied  public  opinion  and  lent 
animation  to  the  scene,  but  did  not  carry  con 
viction.  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  a  brilliant  politi 
cal  adventurer,  and  could  be  engaged  in  the 
fight  without  rashness.  Mr.  Bryan,  the  Demo 
crat,  already  twice  a  candidate  and  twice  de 
feated,  seemed  hardly  destined  for  success. 
There  were  fine  chances  for  a  new  man,  and 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey       89 

w^  do  not  doubt  that  Mr.  Wilson  took  them 
in»'o  his  calculation.  Nevertheless  there  were 
"tvfro  years  to  run.  They  had  to  be  employed 
usefully  and  with  some  striking  result.  The 
Governorship  of  New  Jersey  was  about  to  be 
come  vacant,  the  election  taking  place  in  No 
vember,  1910,  the  candidates  being  selected  in 
September.  Mr.  Wilson  decided  to  make  the 
experiment  and  become  known  as  a  Governor. 
"Undoubtedly,"  wrote  his  friend  and  biog 
rapher,  Mr.  Henry  Jones  Ford,  "the  movement 
which  carried  him  from  the  Presidency  of 
Princeton  to  the  Governorship  of  New  Jersey 
had  for  its  aim  the  Presidency  of  the  nation." 

What  is  a  State  Governor?  The  French 
reader  needs  some  explanation  of  the  nature 
of  his  duties.  The  Republic  of  the  United 
States  is  actually  an  old  and  permanent  union 
of  states.  When  they  federated  in  1775  to 
fight  England  there  were  thirteen.  To-day 
there  are  forty-eight,  and  each  exists  as  a 
State.  Each  one  has  its  own  name ;  its  consti 
tution  as  formulated  by  the  first  colonists  and 
reformed  by  the  inhabitants  at  their  pleasure; 
its  civil  and  criminal  code ;  its  fiscal  legislation, 
and  its  working  powers.  It  has  its  first  and 
second  Houses,  and  a  Governor  elected  for 
two,  three,  or  four  years.  The  functions  of  a 
Governor  are  much  the  same,  although  on  a 


90  President  Wilson 

smaller  scale,  to  those  fulfilled  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world  by  the  President  of  the  UnitH 
States.  The  promotion  from  one  office  to  the 
other  is  natural  and  reasonable.  In  these  later 
years  there  appears  to  be  a  growing  tradition 
which  inclines  the  American  electors  to  select 
their  federal  President  from  amongst  their 
forty-eight  Governors.  Mr.  Roosevelt  was 
Governor  before  becoming  President.  The 
precedent  was  good.  Mr.  Wilson  decided  to 
attempt  in  the  Governorship  of  New  Jersey  the 
last  trial  and  the  last  proof  of  his  strength. 

The  Government  of  New  Jersey  is  very  im 
portant.  A  neighbour  to  New  York,  which  it 
adjoins,  its  activity  is  inextricably  mixed  with 
that  of  the  Atlantic  capital.  New  York  is  built 
at  the  mouth  of  a  wide  river,  the  Hudson.  It 
occupies  one  shore  on  one  side  of  the  estuary. 
New  Jersey  occupies  the  other.  In  reality  they 
form  the  same  city,  separated  by  the  historical 
hazard  of  a  frontier.  But  this  chance  made 
a  lot  of  difference.  The  legal  control  of  finan 
cial  corporations  was  not  the  same  in  New 
York  as  in  Jersey  City,  less  rigid  in  one,  sterner 
in  the  other.  The  financial  corporations  and 
trusts  knew  very  well  how  to  avail  themselves 
of  so  accommodating  a  neighbour.  They 
crossed  the  river,  registered  themselves  in  Jer- 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey       91 

sey  City,  and  were  troubled  no  more.  The 
democratic  politicians,  who  were  masters  in 
New  Jersey,  acted  in  connivance  with  the  trusts 
and  benefited  from  the  hospitality  asked  of 
them.  The  benefit  was  unfortunate  and  low 
ered  the  entire  political  morality  of  the  State. 
It  was  generally  recognised  that  this  morality 
was  deplorable,  and  that  the  House,  the  offices, 
and  the  committees  of  the  State  of  New  Jer 
sey  were  what  we  call  in  France  "cavernes." 
Into  these  dens  Mr.  Wilson,  a  university 
man  of  upright  but  distant  nature,  was  about 
to  enter  as  master.  How  could  it  be  possible? 
In  many  parts  of  the  old  world  we  have  these 
"cavernes/'  these  dens  of  brigands.  But  the 
occupants  know  well  how  to  guard  their  gates. 
They  refuse  admittance  to  any  one  likely  to 
disturb  them.  And  if,  by  any  chance,  an  un 
sympathetic  being  does  slip  in  they  eliminate 
him  by  a  wise  quarantine.  Have  their  Ameri 
can  friends  of  the  same  type  less  prudence? 
No  one  will  believe  it.  The  difference  of  the 
political  machine  explains  the  difference  be 
tween  the  possibilities  of  American  and  Con 
tinental  parliamentarism.  In  America  the 
heads  of  the  executive  power,  the  Governors 
or  the  President,  are  elected  by  universal  suf 
frage.  The  politicians  are  very  united  and 
very  strong.  Our  political  committees  do  not 


92  President  Wilson 

equal  their  redoubtable  machines  which  are  in 
sovereign  control  of  offices  and  favours.  But 
with  both  Governors  or  President  there  is  a 
great  protection  every  three  or  four  years 
which  we  lack,  and  which  helps  to  balance  the 
occult  powers.  The  people,  directly  consulted, 
selects  its  Governors  and  its  Representatives. 
This  public  appeal  is  a  sudden  burst  of  light 
and  air.  .  .  .  We  will  not  exaggerate.  The 
politicians,  committees,  and  their  chairmen, 
what  are  known  as  "the  machines  and  their 
bosses,"  play  cautiously.  They  know  how  to 
reduce  the  efficacy  of  the  appeal  for  protection, 
to  pass  the  air  and  the  light  through  a  fine 
sieve.  However,  the  process  gives  them  trou 
ble,  and  the  result  is  not  certain.  They  do  not 
love  the  recurrence  of  these  "Great  Days" 
when  the  people  name  their  leaders.  They 
elude  the  verdict  by  manoeuvres.  One  consists 
of  hiding  themselves  behind  a  candidate  who 
is  not  a  professional  politician.  They  choose 
a  man  capable  of  pleasing  and  likely  to  succeed 
by  the  novelty  of  his  name,  by  a  prestige  ac 
quired  elsewhere  amidst  surroundings  not  dis 
credited,  a  university  chair  or  a  court  of  jus 
tice,  a  man  in  fact  of  the  type  of  Mr.  Wilson 
who  can  be  tempted  by  the  brilliancy  of  high 
office.  The  politicians,  who  adopt  him  and 
push  his  candidature,  count  upon  the  inexperi- 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey       93 

ence  of  this  newcomer,  and  on  their  knowledge 
of  the  world,  to  reduce  him  to  impotency  on  the 
morrow  of  his  election.  They  then  are  able  to 
govern  as  they  governed  before.  The  situa 
tion  is  false.  People,  politicians,  and  candi 
dates  try  hard  to  extract  advantage  from  it. 
"The  trouble  with  our  present  political  condi 
tion  [wrote  President  Wilson  in  "The  New 
Freedom'']  is  that  we  need  some  man  who  has 
not  been  associated  with  the  governing  classes 
and  the  governing  influences  of  this  country  to 
stand  up  and  speak  for  us;  we  need  to  hear  a 
voice  from  the  outside  calling  upon  the  Ameri 
can  people  to  assert  again  their  rights  and  pre 
rogatives  in  the  possession  of  their  own  gov 
ernment/' 

The  political  "bosses"  of  New  Jersey  had 
every  reason  to  be  confident.  Their  moral  dis 
credit  was  an  old  and  established  fact.  They 
had  been  many  times  denounced  and  attacked 
by  very  active  and  valorous  civic  leagues. 
They  had  ahvays  so  well  known  how  to  defend 
their  power  that  their  adversaries  were  dis 
couraged  and  the  honest  men  of  the  State  re 
duced  to  inertia.  Mr.  Wilson's  ardour  and  elo 
quence  were  recognised.  These  qualities  they 
judged  would  make  him  a  good  advocate. 
They  did  not  forget  his  intellectual  past  and 
his  ineffectual  effort  to  dominate  the  adminis- 


94  President  Wilson 

trative  board  of  Princeton  University.  This 
misadventure  foretold  a  Governor  easy  to  man 
age.  Voluntarily  they  adopted  him.  The 
"boss"  of  the  democratic  party,  a  certain  James 
Smith  who  was  very  discredited,  consented  to 
retire,  and  promised  that  he  would  renounce 
the  representation  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  It  was 
arranged  that  the  brilliant  "outsider"  from  the 
University,  the  stranger  candidate,  should  be 
given  every  freedom,  and  should  receive  every 
promise  necessary  for  his  success. 

In  the  meanwhile  Mr.  Wilson  did  not  inter 
rupt  his  dignified  professorial  existence.  He 
was  playing  golf  on  the  links  of  Princeton 
when  a  messenger  announced  that  his  candi 
dature  was  decidedly  acceptable  to  the  Demo 
crats  of  New  Jersey  who  were  at  that  moment 
sitting  in  party  convention.  The  convention, 
which  had  acclaimed  his  name,  wished  to  hear 
him  speak.  The  messengers  with  these  tidings 
carried  off  Mr.  Wilson  in  their  auto,  covered 
eleven  miles  in  half  an  hour,  and  placed  him  on 
the  platform  where  he  opened  his  public  career. 
He  spoke  clearly  and  with  a  skill  which  must 
have  given  rise  to  thought  amongst  the  politi 
cal  old  stagers  who  had  just  heard  his  name. 
He  did  not  waste  his  time  in  empty  thanks,  but 
made  it  publicly  clear  that  he  had  been  named 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey       95 

candidate  of  the  democratic  party  without  so 
licitation  or  engagement  on  his  side,  and  that 
consequently  he  would  be  wholly  free,  if  elected 
Governor,  to  serve  the  people  and  the  State 
with  entire  independence.  And  he  set  forth 
his  programme. 

"Above  all  the  issues  there  are  three  which 
demand  our  particular  attention;  first,  the 
business-like  and  economical  administration  of 
the  business  of  the  State;  second,  equalisation 
of  taxes;  and  third,  control  of  corporations. 
There  are  other  important  questions  that  con 
front  us,  as  they  confront  all  the  other  States 
of  the  Union  in  this  day  of  readjustment,  like 
the  matter  of  corrupt  practices  in  elections, 
liability  of  employers  and  conservation.  But 
the  three  I  have  mentioned  will  dominate  the 
rest.  It  is  imperative  that  we  should  not  only 
master  them,  but  also  act  upon  them,  and  act 
very  definitely. 

"The  question  of  the  control  of  corporations 
is  a  very  difficult  one,  upon  which  no  man  can 
speak  with  confidence.  But  some  things  are 
plain.  It  is  plain,  so  far  as  New  Jersey  is  con 
cerned,  that  we  must  have  a  public  service  com 
mission  with  the  amplest  powers  to  oversee  and 
regulate  the  administration  of  public  service 
corporations  throughout  the  State.  .  .  .  The 
regulation  of  corporations  is  the  duty  of  the 


96  President  Wilson 

State  much  more  directly  than  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States.  It  is  my 
strong  hope  that  New  Jersey  may  lead  the  way 
in  reform  by  scrutinising  very  carefully  the 
enterprises  she  consents  to  incorporate:  their 
make-up,  their  objects,  the  basis  and  method  of 
their  capitalisation,  their  organisation  with  re 
spect  to  liability  to  control  by  the  State,  their 
conformity  to  state  and  federal  statutes.  This 
can  be  done,  and  done  effectually.  I  covet  for 
New  Jersey  the  honour  of  doing  it." 

This  clear  speech  was  the  first  of  a  vigorous 
and  brilliant  campaign.  Until  November  8th, 
day  of  the  election,  Mr.  Wilson  travelled 
through  the  State,  always  setting  forth  his 
independence  and  his  plans.  Publicly  interro 
gated  by  the  members  of  the  civic  leagues,  he 
replied  to  them  without  concealment. 

"You  ask  me  what  I  think  of  our  political 
system,  of  our  committees,  and  their  leaders. 
I  have  made  it  my  business  for  years  to  ob 
serve  and  understand  that  system,  and  I  hate 
it  as  thoroughly  as  I  understand  it.  You  are 
quite  right  in  saying  that  the  system  is  bi-par- 
tisan;  that  it  constitutes  'the  most  dangerous 
condition  in  the  public  life  of  our  State  and 
nation  to-day';  and  that  it  has  virtually,  for 
the  time  being,  'destroyed  representative  gov 
ernment,  and  put  in  its  place  a  government  of 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey       97 

privilege.'  I  would  propose  to  abolish  it  by  the 
above  reforms,  by  the  election  to  office  of  men 
who  will  refuse  to  submit  to  it,  and  bend  all 
their  energies  to  break  it  up,  and  by  pitiless 
publicity/' 

He  was  asked  what  his  relations  would  be 
with  his  own  party  managers.  He  replied: 
"I  would  consider,  if  I  am  elected,  that  I  am 
myself  the  head  of  my  party,  and  the  direct 
representative  of  the  whole  people  in  the  con 
duct  of  the  government." 

Mr.  Wilson  was  elected.  He  had  a  majority 
of  50,000  votes,  replacing  a  Republican  who 
had  been  elected  with  a  majority  of  80,000. 
His  campaign  Kad  displaced  and  gained  130,- 
ooo  votes.  ^The  elections  to  the  legislature, 
which  had  taken  place  at  the  same  time,  had 
equally  favoured  the  democratic  party  to 
which  he  belonged.  The  republican  majority 
of  31  on  a  joint  ballot  had  now  become  a  dem 
ocratic  majority  of  21.  Nothing  more  re 
mained  for  Mr.  Wilson  but  to  prove  his  author 
ity  and  govern  as  he  had  promised. 

He  did  not  fail.  He  had  to  fight,  but  the 
battle  was  short  and  decisive.  We  have  al 
ready  referred  to  James  Smith,  the  local  poli 
tician  and  "boss,"  who  retired  in  favour  of 
Mr.  Wilson.  Mr.  Wilson  had  in  fact  exacted 
his  resignation.  In  the  convention  which  had 


98  President  Wilson 

proclaimed  his  candidature,  names  had  been 
discussed  for  one  of  the  two  senatorial  seats 
which  belonged  to  the  State  of  New  Jersey  in 
the  federal  Senate  of  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Wilson  had  requested  that  James  Smith  should 
not  be  nominated,  as  he  did  not  wish  his  name 
associated  with  that  of  the  "boss."  His  de 
mand  was  admitted.  A  certain  James  E.  Mar- 
tine  was  selected  in  the  place  of  Smith,  and 
Mr.  Wilson  believed  the  matter  settled  by  this 
resignation  and  selection.  He  was  deceived. 
With  indignation  he  learned  that  James 
Smith's  resignation  was  simply  a  trick.  On 
the  morrow  of  the  electoral  success  Smith  tran 
quilly  declared  that  there  had  been  a  mistake, 
that  he  had  recovered  from  the  illness  which 
had  attacked  him,  and  that  he  was  the  candi 
date  and  not  Mr.  Martine.  His  political 
friends  did  not  contradict  these  assertions. 

For  an  instant  Mr.  Wilson  was  surprised  by 
the  cynicism  of  the  ruse,  and  by  the  clumsy  re- 
erection  of  the  political  machine  he  had  prom 
ised  to  control.  But  he  understood  that  he 
must  from  that  moment  either  gain  or  lose  his 
party.  The  position  was  very  difficult.  The  sen 
ator,  representative  of  New  Jersey  at  Wash 
ington,  was  elected  not  by  universal  suffrage 
but  by  the  electoral  body,  the  state  legislature 
constituted  by  members  of  both  Houses,  the 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey       99 

politicians  who  had  been  accustomed  to  march 
with  and  follow  their  "bosses."  Mr.  Wilson 
thus  found  himself  surrounded  by  his  adver 
saries,  and  in  grave  danger  of  being  rapidly 
and  definitely  humiliated.  The  combat  was 
unavoidable,  and  he  accepted  the  challenge. 
He  first  addressed  himself  to  James  Smith,  re 
minded  him  of  his  promise,  and  called  upon 
him  to  keep  it.  Mr.  James  Smith  paid  no  at 
tention  to  the  demand,  and  Mr.  Wilson  imme 
diately  addressed  himself  to  the  people. 

"I  realise  the  delicacy  of  taking  any  part  in 
the  discussion  of  the  matter  [he  said].  As 
Governor  of  New  Jersey  I  shall  have  no  part 
in  the  choice  of  Senator.  Legally  speaking,  it 
is  not  my  duty  even  to  give  advice  with  regard 
to  the  choice.  But  there  are  other  duties  besides 
legal  duties.  The  recent  campaign  has  put  me 
in  an  unusual  position.  I  offered,  if  elected, 
to  be  the  political  spokesman  and  advisor  of 
the  people.  I  even  asked  the  voters  who  did 
not  care  to  make  their  choice  of  governor  upon 
that  understanding  not  to  vote  for  me.  I  be 
lieve  that  the  choice  was  made  upon  that  un 
derstanding  and  I  cannot  escape  the  responsi 
bility  involved.  I  have  no  desire  to  escape  it. 
It  is  my  duty  to  say,  with  a  full  sense  of  the 
peculiar  responsibility  of  my  position,  what  I 


100  President  Wilson 

deem  to  be  the  obligation  of  the  legislature  to 
do  in  this  gravely  important  matter" 

We  have  italicized  these  words.  They  ex 
press  the  whole  sense  and  essence  of  what  may 
be  called  the  Wilsonian  revolution,  a  revolu 
tion  long  meditated  and  pre-meditated,  for  we 
have  found  its  definition  in  the  earliest  works 
of  our  author.  He  had  always  desired  what 
he  was  able  to  do  that  day,  to  bring  together 
Executive  and  Legislative,  artificially  sepa 
rated  by  the  written  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  to  create  an  authority — a  personal  au 
thority — which  imposed  its  will  upon  the  two 
Houses,  advising  them,  leading  them,  and  gov 
erning  them,  and  telling  them  what  it  consid 
ered  should  be  their  duty  in  serious  cases.  We 
recall  the  origin  because  it  is  that  origin  which 
gives  significance  to  the  local  incident.  Trace 
a  straight  line  from  the  origin  to  this  episode, 
continue  the  line  by  an  imaginary  prolonga 
tion.  This  prolongation  will  show  at  a  not 
very  remote  point  a  great  fact.  In  March, 
1917,  President  Wilson  told  his  people  what 
he  considered  to  be  their  duty  in  the  gravest  of 
circumstances,  and  he  launched  that  people  into 
war.  But  let  us  return  to  this  State  Governor 
ship  in  which  Mr.  Wilson  was  beginning  to 
exercise  himself  and  show  his  quality. 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey     ID! 

He  had  satisfaction  of  the  "boss"  who  had 
tried  to  trick  him.  Smith  was  definitely  re 
jected  and  Martine  elected  senator.  This  first 
victory  cleared  the  ground,  and  rendered  al 
most  easy  those  which  followed.  Mr.  Wilson 
took  the  direction  of  the  legislative  work.  The 
constitution  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  enacts 
that  the  Governor  "should  communicate  with 
the  Houses  by  means  of  a  message  at  the  com 
mencement  of  each  session,  and  at  such  other 
times  as  he  should  deem  necessary,  recom 
mending  to  them  such  measures  as  he  consid 
ered  advisable."  This  written  law  produced 
feeble  results.  Mr.  Wilson  armed  himself  with 
the  text,  and  gave  fresh  life  to  the  function. 
Addressing  himself  to  the  members,  he  told 
them  what  he  expected  from  them  in  the  name 
of  public  opinion.  The  constitution  did  not 
authorise  him  to  participate  in  the  legislative 
debates,  and  he  had  to  abstain  from  them.  But 
he  participated  in  the  meetings  of  the  demo 
cratic  party  of  which  he  considered  himself 
the  leader  at  the  same  time  as  Governor  of  the 
State.  He  was  not  invited  to  participate.  He 
invited  himself,  asserting  himself,  and  speak 
ing  with  a  tenacity  and  authority  which  tired 
his  adversaries. 

Governor  Wilson's  legislative  work  is  of 
high  interest.  But  the  French  reader  would 


102  President  Wilson 

not  be  likely  to  understand  it  without  previous 
explanation.  The  atmosphere  and  the  prob 
lems  have  no  analogies  in  France.  Our  insti 
tutions  have  numerous  defects,  but  they  can 
not  be  compared  with  American  institutions  as 
their  character  is  so  different.  If  we  wish  to 
understand  the  politics  of  the  United  States  of 
America  we  must  remember  that  this  immense 
nation  of  mixed  race — illiterates,  streaked  with 
Calabrian,  Syrian,  and  Croat  blood — is  gov 
erned  by  laws  set  up  in  1787  by  English  and 
Scottish  colonists  under  the  guidance  of  a  rural 
aristocracy  and  the  cream  of  Puritan  jurists. 
These  men  organised  an  ingenious  and  compli 
cated  system  of  officials  elected  to  arbitrate 
upon  the  difficulties  which  cropped  up.  They 
took  for  granted  that  these  difficulties  would 
be  exceptional  and  trifling,  for  their  activities 
were  dispersed  across  the  vast  scattered  space 
in  which  they  lived.  They  thought,  and  not 
without  reason,  that  these  officials  could  not 
be  very  numerous.  So  they  decided  to  name 
them — judges,  administrators,  militia  officers, 
school  directors — by  the  selection  of  the  ballot. 
The  old  colonists  in  this  way  almost  succeeded 
in  suppressing  the  State  and  establishing  a  free 
republic.  The  reality  is  remote,  the  survivals 
are  absurd.  An  Americanised  Bulgarian  who 
can  scarcely  speak  English,  who  cannot  write, 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey     103 

can  nominate,  in  other  words  can  select  each 
year,  if  he  lives  in  a  large  town,  a  hundred  of 
ficials.  Illiterate  himself  he  can  yet  turn  the 
wheels  of  the  most  difficult  political  machinery. 
His  incapacity  is  conspicuous.  This  unhappy 
person  must  not  be  crushed,  for  if  he  is  in 
capable  no  one  is  capable.  The  most  clear 
headed  and  careful  citizen  of  an  American  city 
is  overwhelmed  by  the  duties  thrust  upon  him 
by  an  old-fashioned  constitution,  by  the  num 
ber  and  frequency  of  the  choice  demanded 
from  him.  Thus  arises  the  power  of  the  com 
mittee  and  the  politician,  the  "machines"  and 
the  "bosses."  They  are  the  specialists  who 
fabricate  the  lists  and  manipulate  the  ballots 
exactly  as  merchants  buy  their  goods  and  make 
a  market.  Mr.  Wilson  touched  upon  the  sub 
ject  with  s^me  force  a  few  months  before  his 
election  in  March,  1909,  when  addressing  one 
of  the  civic  leagues  which  devote  themselves  to 
studying  these  problems. 

"You  have  given  the  people  of  this  country 
so  many  persons  to  select  for  office  that  they 
have  not  time  to  select  them,  and  have  to  leave 
it  to  professionals,  that  is  to  say,  the  profes 
sional  politicians;  which,  reduced  to  its  sim 
plest  term,  is  the  boss  of  the  district.  When 
you  vote  the  republican  or  democratic  ticket 
you  either  vote  for  the  names  selected  by  one 


104  President  Wilson 

machine  or  the  names  selected  by  the  other 
machine.  This  is  not  to  lay  any  aspersion  upon 
those  who  receive  the  nominations.  I  for  one 
do  not  subscribe  to  the  opinion  that  bosses  un 
der  our  Government  deserve  our  scorn  and 
contempt,  for  we  have  organised  a  system  of 
government  which  makes  them  just  as  neces 
sary  as  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
They  are  the  natural,  inevitable  fruit  of  the 
tree,  and  if  we  do  not  like  them  we  have  got 
to  plant  another  tree.  JEhe  boss  is  just  as  legiti 
mate  as  any  member  of  any  legislature,  be 
cause  by  giving  the  people  a  task  which  they 
cannot  perform,  you  have  taken  it  away  from 
them,  and  have  made  it  necessary  that  those 
who  can  perform  it  should  perform  it.  .  .  ." 

Under  a  final  analysis  the  constitution 
proves  faulty  because  it  is  fictitious,  and  fic 
titious  because  it  is  out  of  date.  Being  obso 
lete,  necessarily  it  must  disappear  before  occult 
but  energetic  and  actual  force.  Mr.  Wilson 
dealt  also  with  this  aspect. 

"What  is  the  moral?  I  have  already  said 
it,  and  said  it  again,  to  the  students  at  my 
lectures.  To-day,  for  the  first  time,  I  offer  it 
to  my  fellow  citizens  in  conference  assembled 
outside  the  confines  of  the  college.  I  have  for 
a  long  while  deferred  the  task  which  appeared 
at  first  discouraging.  The  remedy  is  con- 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey      105 

tained  in  one  word,  Simplification.  Simplify 
your  processes,  and  you  will  begin  to  control; 
complicate  them,  and  you  will  get  farther  and 
farther  away  from  their  control. 

"Simplification !  Simplification !  Simplifica 
tion  !  is  the  task  that  awaits  us :  to  reduce  the 
number  of  persons  voted  for  to  the  absolute 
workable  minimum, — knowing  whom  you  have 
selected ;  knowing  whom  you  have  trusted,  and 
having  so  few  persons  to  watch  that  you  can 
watch  them.  That  is  the  way  we  are  going  to 
get  popular  control  back  in  this  country,  and 
that  is  the  only  way  we  are  going  to  get  popu 
lar  control  back.  .  .  .  Act  in  any  other  man 
ner — name,  for  example,  new  officials  ex 
pressly  charged  to  watch  those  you  have  al 
ready  elected,  and  you  will  have  obtained  noth 
ing  but  a  new  weakness  in  your  control." 

Simplification;  in  other  words  to  level  to  the 
intelligence  of  the  multitude  a  constitution 
based  upon  the  political  intelligence  of  a  patri 
archal  and  highly  cultivated  society.  Simpli 
fication;  to  shape  to  the  needs  of  a  modern 
state,  weighted  with  enterprises  and  responsi 
bilities,  a  constitution  planned  for  the  needs 
of  a  primitive  state,  to  arbitrate  between  the 
citizens  rather  than  to  lead  the  people.  Sim 
plification  of  electoral  procedure,  of  the  mecha 
nism  of  control,  of  the  concentration  of  power. 


106  President  Wilson 

To  form  from  the  elements  of  a  republican  so 
ciety,  founded  by  eighteenth  century  Puritan 
colonists,  a  new,  authoritative  and  popular  so 
ciety,  Caesarian  in  more  than  one  respect. 
This  was  the  task  Mr.  Wilson  defined  so 
clearly,  a  task  he  attempted  within  the  limited 
scope  of  his  powers. 

At  first  he  wished  to  reduce  the  secret  influ 
ences.  He  wanted  to  secure  the  control  of  the 
political  and  financial  combinations  which  gov 
erned  under  the  pretence  of  a  fictitious  democ 
racy.  He  favoured  the  passing  of  a  law  in 
sisting  upon  the  publicity  of  conventions  and 
the  deliberations  of  the  Parties,  and  regulat 
ing  the  methods  by  which  they  selected  the 
candidates.  There  was  3,  lively  resistance. 
Dissenting  Democrats  united  with  Republicans 
in  concerted  opposition  to  defeat  the  bill.  At 
this  meeting  to  which  he  had  not  been  asked 
Governor  Wilson  arrived  self-invited.  He 
spoke  for  four  hours.  Overcoming  his  oppo 
nents,  he  secured  the  necessary  support.  The 
law  was  passed.  On  one  hand  it  increased 
the  power  of  the  people,  on  the  other  the  power 
of  the  Governor,  at  the  expense  of  these  secret 
committees  of  the  Parties.  The  Governor  was 
given  a  legal  right  to  assist  at  those  party  con 
ferences  which  decided  upon  the  programmes. 
This  innovation  was  actively  attacked  on  the 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey      107 

ground  that  the  Governor  would  become  a  dic 
tator.  'This  is  really  a  powerful  argument  in 
its  favour.  We  have  outgrown  the  notion  that 
the  concentration  of  power  necessarily  means 
tyranny.  The  course  we  ought  to  pursue  is  the 
adoption  of  means  for  securing  the  location  of 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  most  responsible  au 
thority."  * 

Mr.  Wilson  then  occupied  himself  with  the 
financial  bodies  dealing  with  the  public  serv 
ices.  They  are  numerous  in  the  United  States, 
where  the  municipalities  do  not  usually  under 
take  such  enterprises  as  the  supply  of  their 
own  gas,  water,  and  traction.  They  are  power 
ful,  and  constantly  intrigue  amongst  the  rep 
resentatives  and  parties,  seeking  friends,  se 
cretly  by  bribery,  publicly  by  "propaganda" 
subventions.  Mr.  Wilson  resolved  to  end  this 
traffic  by  suppressing  all  relationship  between 
the  industrial  combinations  and  the  members 
of  the  legislature.  He  introduced  into  the 
State  of  which  he  was  governor  a  measure 
already  passed  by  other  states.  He  created  an 
administrative  commission  of  public  services, 
a  Public  Utilities  Commission.  The  purpose 
of  this  institution,  according  to  an  American 

*The  New  Stateism,  by  John  M.  Mathews,  in  the  North 
American  Review,  for  June,  1911. 


108  President  Wilson 

writer,*  was  "to  divorce  all  corporate  regula 
tion  from  politics  by  taking  it  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  Legislature  and  placing  it  in  the  con 
trol  of  a  small  administrative  body."  Four 
members  sat  upon  this  body,  with  jurisdiction 
over  water,  gas,  telephone,  tramway,  railway 
and  other  companies.  They  had  power  to  in 
vestigate  the  actions  of  these  companies,  their 
formation,  and  their  financial  conditions.  The 
responsibility  of  a  few  competent  and  well  re 
munerated  men  was  substituted  for  that  of 
some  hundreds  of  elected  representatives. 

Mr.  Wilson  did  not  rest  until  he  had  finished 
all  the  reforms  inscribed  on  his  programme. 
Public  opinion  gave  him  powerful  assistance. 
The  Legislature  could  resist  no  longer.  The 
laws  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  imposed  many 
meetings  upon  the  municipalities,  elected  more 
officials  than  representatives,  and  all  equally 
dependent  upon  the  Parties.  Mr.  Wilson 
modified  this  legal  framework  and  gave  it 
greater  pliancy.  New  laws  were  passed  au 
thorising  the  municipalities  to  govern  them 
selves  according  to  a  more  modern  view,  in 
the  shape  of  commissions  elected  by  direct 
popular  vote  and  presided  over  by  a  salaried 
mayor.  Twenty-four  cities,  including  Jersey 

*  Young :  "The  New  American  Government  and  Its  Work," 
chap,  xviii. 


The  Government  of  New  Jersey     109 

City,  Atlantic  City,  Trenton,  and  Hoboken, 
soon  took  advantage  of  this  arrangement. 

This  was  not  all.  Laws  were  passed  which 
repressed  electoral  corruption,  also  a  law  which 
determined  the  responsibility  of  masters  in  re 
spect  to  workmen's  accidents.  .  .  .  He  ob 
tained  these  results  in  the  short  space  of  a  year ; 
he  succeeded  in  carrying  them  through  by  his 
energy,  his  persistence,  and  his  extraordinary 
good  luck. 

Other  reforms  were  meditated.  The  con 
stitution  forbade  him  to  take  part  in  legislative 
debates.  Like  our  French  President,  he  was 
kept  apart  from  them.  Mr.  Wilson  wished  to 
have  this  rule  modified,  and  so  increase  the 
power  of  his  intervention.  But  a  rude  reversal 
of  fortune  troubled  his  activity.  A  notable 
section  of  the  Democrats  declared  itself  against 
him,  and  became  allied  with  the  Republicans, 
thus  securing  a  majority  in  the  Senate  and  As 
sembly  in  November,  1911.  From  that  date 
Mr.  Wilson's  government  was  exercised  with 
difficulty.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  having 
passed  into  law  an  important  bill  which  placed 
the  financial  companies  under  an  exact  control. 
This  ended  scandals  already  referred  to. 
Business  men  hunted  out  of  New  York  were 
no  longer  able  to  cross  the  Hudson  and  con 
tinue  their  traffic  at  Hoboken  or  Jersey  City. 


110  President  Wilson 

Mr.  Wilson  had  done  enough  to  prove  his  ca 
pacity.  "Mr.  Wilson's  five  months'  record 
[wrote  a  Canadian  journalist]  has  shown  that 
he  is  an  idealist  who  can  down  the  politicians 
and  get  results/' 


V — The  First  Presidential  Candidature 


IN  addition  to  these  activities  Mr.  Wilson 
was  able  to  employ  his  thoughts  other 
than   in   the  government  of  his   State. 
The  presidential   election  of    1912   was 
drawing  near.    In  June  the  Parties  would  se 
lect  their  candidates,  and  in  November  the  peo 
ple  would  cast  their  vote.    In  1911  Mr.  Wilson 
made  a  tour  from  one  political  conference  to 
another,  even  going  so  far  as  the  states  bor 
dering  the  Pacific.     In  January,  1912,  he  de 
livered  a  speech  at  Washington  which  placed 
him  in  the  front  rank  of  his  party.     He  was 
ready,  and  not  to  be  ignored. 

A  word  must  be  said  in  explanation  of  these 
American  Parties,  so  different  from  the 
French,  and  at  first  so  difficult  to  understand. 
Our  parties  have  systematic  programmes  upon 
which  their  debates  are  based.  When  we  think 
of  the  two  famous  American  parties,  the  Re 
publicans  and  the  Democrats,  our  first  and 
very  natural  idea  is  to  seek  the  difference  be 
tween  their  programmes.  But  this  difference 
is  hard  to  find,  which  surprises  and  troubles 
us.  Without  question  at  one  time  some  differ- 
in 


112  President  Wilson 

ence  existed.  The  Republicans  were  in  favour 
of  a  centralised  and  developed  power.  The 
Democrats  preferred  the  autonomy  of  the 
states.  The  opposite  tendencies  produced  in 
1 86 1  a  sanguinary  crisis,  a  civil  war  between 
the  autonomist  South  and  the  more  unified 
North.  Half-a-century  has  passed,  and  the 
question  which  led  the  two  parties  into  battle 
has  lost  its  sharpness,  and  exists  no  longer. 
Another  and  more  constant  question  divides 
them.  The  Republicans  are  protectionist, 
whilst  the  Democrats  incline  towards  free 
trade.  This,  however,  is  but  a  tendency,  and 
not  sufficient  in  itself  to  explain  the  existence 
of  two  formidable  organisations  deeply  rooted 
in  the  smallest  of  towns.  Might  we  say  that 
the  democratic  party  is  more  "advanced"  than 
its  rival  ?  It  can  be  said.  Bryan,  to  some  ex 
tent  the  Jaures  of  the  United  States,  is  one  of 
the  leaders.  The  high  finance  of  New  York,  at 
Wall  Street,  supports  the  republican  party. 
But  to  these  deductions  it  would  be  easy  to 
offer  opposing  indications.  The  democratic 
party  has  also  financiers  to  support  it.  The 
Republicans  include  leaders  of  sections  which 
vigorously  denounce  the  trusts.  If  Bryan  is 
fought  by  conservative  Republicans  he  is  no 
less  opposed  by  democratic  Conservatives,  the 
Democrats  of  the  Southern  States.  Mr.  Wil- 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     113 

son  must  actually  be  included  amongst  them. 
He  has  never  dissimulated  the  aversion  in 
spired  in  him  by  the  demagogic  compliances  of 
his  political  associate  Bryan.  When,  for  the 
first  time,  in  1906,  he  considered  a  presidential 
candidature,  he  sought  for  the  support  of  the 
democratic  Conservatives.  But  these  general 
observations  do  not  greatly  advance  our  en 
quiry,  and  the  question  remains  almost  unan 
swered.  Why  a  republican  party?  Why  a 
democratic  party?  And  why  are  the  two  par 
ties  irreducibly  opposed?  The  reply  undoubt 
edly  is  that  they  exist  because  at  some  former 
time  they  had  a  reason  to  exist,  that  they  con 
tinue  to  exist  because  they  have  become  veri 
table  institutions,  societies  for  political  ad 
vancement,  administrative  enterprises  with  a 
following.  These  two  parties  have  been  com 
pared  to  the  two  great  Parisian  stores,  the 
Louvre  and  the  Bon  Marche.  Both  have  the 
same  function  of  supplying  household  goods. 
They  rival  each  other  in  making  offers,  each 
one  cheaper  and  more  attractive  than  the  other. 
There  are  the  floating  customers  who  give  their 
patronage  to  one  or  the  other  according  to  the 
fascination  of  the  service  offered.  The  com 
parison  is  not  inexact.  A  French  reader  will 
do  well  to  fix  it  in  his  memory  if  he  wishes  to 
rid  himself  of  the  embarrassment  of  attaching 


114  President  Wilson 

too  clear  and  sharp  a  meaning  to  words  worn 
by  much  usage. 

What  was  the  position  in  1912  of  the  two 
Parties?  The  Republicans  had  held  the  Presi 
dential  office  for  a  long  while,  and  were  fa 
tigued.  Roosevelt  governed  from  1902  to  1908 
with  a  noisy  violence  which  had  ceased  to 
please.  Taft  had  then  been  elected.  He  had 
governed  honestly  and  skilfully,  but  without 
brilliance.  He  did  not  captivate  a  country 
which  loves  the  inspiration  of  leadership.  The 
republican  party  supported  the  candidature  of 
a  leader  who  had  not  forfeited  their  esteem. 
Taft  would  have  had  many  chances  -if  Roose 
velt  had  not  suddenly  undertaken  to  divide  the 
electorate  by  proposing  himself  as  a  candidate 
in  the  name  of  a  new  party  which  called  itself 
Progressist.  He  presented  a  very  fine  national 
and  democratic  programme.  But  it  lacked 
solid  organisation,  and  a  divided  party  gave 
wonderful  chances  to  such  disciplined  oppo 
nents  as  the  Democrats.  Reunited  in  confer 
ence  in  June,  1912,  they  struck  out  the  candi 
dature  of  Bryan,  selecting  as  champion  one 
who  had  already  given  proof  of  knowledge, 
prudence,  and  capacity.  This  man  was  Wil 
son.  When  declared  candidate  his  name  was 
acclaimed  by  cheering  which  lasted  for  an  hour 
and  a  quarter.  This  was  a  good  omen.  It  was 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     115 

remembered,  however,  that  when  Bryan  was 
selected  as  candidate  in  1908  the  cries,  stamp 
ings,  and  bravos  had  continued  for  one  hour 
and  twenty-seven  minutes. 

His  destiny  had  suddenly  enlarged.  Wilson 
was  in  the  running  for  the  first  magistrature 
in  the  world.  What  figure  would  he  cut  in  such 
a  test  ?  We  have  followed  his  career  when,  as 
a  professor,  he  spoke  with  deep  knowledge  and 
wisdom.  As  president  of  a  university  his 
words  were  authoritative,  lofty,  and  eloquently 
impressive.  As  Governor  of  a  State  he  spoke 
clearly,  and  with  the  requisite  force.  In  a 
word,  this  tenacious  and  supple  man,  eminently 
capable,  had  been  to  that  moment  equal  to  all 
the  tasks  he  had  undertaken.  He  had  now  to 
address  himself  to  the  multitude,  and  to  per 
suade  and  inspire  the  most  vast  and  mixed  of 
peoples.  This  was  a  different  task.  Let  us 
see  how  he  attempted  and  set  about  it. 

In  France  we  are  easily  able  to  study  his 
actual  words.  During  1913  a  volume  entitled 
"The  New  Freedom,"  containing  the  speeches 
delivered  in  the  course  of  his  presidential  can 
didature,  was  translated  and  published  in 
French.  In  addressing  the  crowd  Mr.  Wilson 
modified  his  language.  His  historic  realism 
was  slightly  put  on  one  side  in  the  shade. 


116  President  Wilson 

Crowds,  as  he  well  knew,  are  always  in  the 
depths  of  their  being  optimists  and  believers, 
and  to  be  swayed  by  idealistic  appeals  and  re 
ligious  phraseology.  His  new  style  of  elo 
quence  was  idealist  and  religious,  democratic 
and  levelling.  He  seemed  to  arrive  at  this  ef 
fect  immediately  and  without  effort,  as  if  he 
were  guided  in  his  steps  by  the  true  instinct 
of  public  life — what  should  be  said,  and  the 
manner  in  which  it  should  be  said.  The  trans 
formation  is  so  striking  that  we  cannot  study 
the  life  of  Mr.  Wilson  without  endeavouring 
to  discover  the  determining  springs  of  action. 
In  an  interesting  article  already  quoted  Miss 
Ida  Tarbell  also  observed  the  fact  and  was 
equally  astonished.  She  asked  herself  the 
same  question:  "Mr.  Wilson's  career  having 
been  for  so  long  that  which  ordinarily  produces 
the  intellectual  aristocrat  of  America,  how  did 
he  become  the  great  Democrat  he  so  incontest- 
ably  is  at  the  present  day?"  And  she  con 
tinues:  "I  asked  him  the  question."  "I  do 
not  know,"  he  replied  frankly.  "I  was  not 
conscious  that  a  change  had  been  at  work  in 
me.  Certainly  my  family  stock  and  origin 
must  be  taken  into  account.  By  blood  I  am  a 
mixture  of  Scotch  and  Irish.  There  is  no  true 
aristocracy  in  Scotland,  neither  is  there  any 
real  peasantry.  The  only  difference  between 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     117 

one  Scotchman  and  another  is  that  of  educa 
tion.  There  has  never  been  any  bar  between 
me  or  any  one  else  except  a  difference  in  taste. 
My  father  was  the  same."  This  explanation 
must  undoubtedly  be  kept  in  mind.  But  we 
must  not  be  discouraged  from  seeking  others. 
Why  did  this  remote  hereditary  strain  slum 
ber  so  long?  What  could  have  made  it  so  sud 
denly  active,  if  it  was  not  this  instinct  of  pub 
lic  life  which  animates  Mr.  Wilson's  personal 
ity,  a  singular  instinct,  at  once  practical  and 
realistic,  suggesting  to  him  at  every  moment 
the  most  effective  words.  He  always  en 
deavoured  to  gain  the  approbation  and  the  sup 
port  of  the  audiences  which  listened  to  him. 
The  emotion  of  a  crowd  is  the  most  powerful 
force  in  the  world.  He  conjured  it  up,  and 
handled  it  with  the  skill  of  a  master.  "In  poli 
tics,"  he  said  to  Miss  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  "I  am  a 
pragmatist.  My  first  thought  is,  what  results 
will  be  given?" 

We  have  already  noted  the  wise  eloquence 
of  Mr.  Wilson,  when,  as  a  university  professor, 
he  recommended  the  study  of  classical  tradi 
tion  to  his  pupils.  Classical  learning  remains 
a  solid  legacy  of  thirty  centuries  of  experience 
to  a  humble  present  and  an  always  uncertain 
future.  Listen  now  to  the  voice  of  the  other 
Wilson,  the  popular  candidate  for  the  leader- 


118  President  Wilson 

ship  of  a  nation.  Listen  as  he  speaks  to  this 
American  people,  exalting  before  them,  and 
with  them,  the  great  innovation,  and  the  infi 
nite  hopes  of  American  history.  They  are  not 
speeches  [wrote  M.  Jean  Izoulet,  the  French 
translator  of  'The  New  Freedom"],  they  are 
hymns.  We  do  not  know  which  to  admire— 
the  simple  and  deep  inspiration,  or  the  pro 
found  religious  tone. 

"No  matter  how  often  we  think  of  it,  the 
discovery  of  America  must  each  time  make  a 
fresh  appeal  to  our  imaginations.  For  centu 
ries,  indeed  from  the  beginning,  the  face  of 
Europe  had  been  turned  toward  the  east.  All 
the  routes  of  trade,  every  impulse  and  energy, 
ran  from  west  to  east.  The  Atlantic  lay  at  the 
world's  back-door.  Then,  suddenly  the  con 
quest  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turk  closed  the 
route  to  the  Orient.  Europe  had  either  to  face 
about  or  lack  any  outlet  for  her  energies ;  the 
unknown  sea  at  the  west  at  last  was  ventured 
upon,  and  the  earth  learned  that  it  was  twice 
as  big  as  it  had  thought.  Columbus  did  not 
find,  as  he  had  expected,  the  civilisation  of 
Cathay ;  he  found  an  empty  continent.  In  that 
part  of  the  world,  upon  that  new-found  half 
of  the  globe,  mankind,  late  in  its  history,  was 
thus  afforded  an  opportunity  to  set  up  a  new 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     119 

civilisation;  here  it  was  strangely  privileged 
to  make  a  new  human  experiment. 

"Never  can  that  moment  of  unique  oppor 
tunity  fail  to  excite  the  emotion  of  all  who  con 
sider  its  strangeness  and  richness;  a  thousand 
fanciful  histories  of  earth  might  be  contrived 
without  the  imagination  daring  to  conceive 
such  a  romance  as  the  hiding  away  of  half  the 
globe  until  the  fulness  of  time  had  come  for  a 
new  start  in  civilisation.  A  mere  sea-captain's 
ambition  to  trace  a  new  trade  route  gave  way 
to  a  moral  adventure  for  humanity.  The  race 
was  to  found  a  new  order  here  on  this  delect 
able  land,  which  no  man  approached  without 
receiving,  as  the  old  voyagers  relate,  you  re 
member,  sweet  airs  out  of  woods  aflame  with 
flowers  and  murmurous  with  the  sound  of  pel 
lucid  waters.  The  hemisphere  lay  waiting  to 
be  touched  with  life — life  from  the  old  centres 
of  living  surely,  but  cleansed  of  defilement, 
and  cured  of  weariness,  so  as  to  be  fit  for  the 
virgin  purity  of  a  new  bride.  The  whole  thing 
springs  into  the  imagination  like  a  wonderful 
vision,  an  exquisite  marvel  which  once  only  in 
all  history  could  be  vouchsafed. 

"One  thing  other  only  compares  with  it; 
only  one  other  thing  touches  the  springs  of 
emotion  as  does  the  picture  of  the  ships  of  Co 
lumbus  drawing  near  the  bright  shores — that 


120  President  Wilson 

is  the  thought  of  the  choke  in  the  throat  of  the 
immigrant  of  to-day  as  he  gazes  from  the  steer 
age  deck  at  the  land  where  he  has  been  taught 
to  believe  he  in  his  turn  shall  find  an  earthly 
paradise,  where,  a  free  man,  he  shall  forget 
the  heartaches  of  the  old  life,  and  enter  into 
the  fulfilment  of  the  hope  of  the  world.  For 
has  not  every  ship  that  has  pointed  her  prow 
westward  borne  hither  the  hopes  of  generation 
after  generation  of  the  oppressed  of  other 
lands?  How  always  have  men's  hearts  beat 
as  they  saw  the  coast  of  America  rise  to  their 
view !  How  it  has  always  seemed  to  them  that 
the  dweller  there  would  at  last  be  rid  of  kings, 
of  privileged  classes,  and  of  all  those  bonds 
which  had  kept  men  depressed  and  helpless, 
and  would  there  realise  the  full  fruition  of  his 
sense  of  honest  manhood,  would  there  be  one 
of  a  great  body  of  brothers,  not  seeking  to  de 
fraud  and  deceive  one  another,  but  seeking  to 
accomplish  the  general  good! 

"What  was  in  the  writings  of  the  men  who 
founded  America?  To  serve  the  selfish  inter 
ests  of  America?  Do  you  find  that  in  their 
writings?  No;  to  serve  the  cause  of  human 
ity,  to  bring  liberty  to  mankind.  They  set  up 
their  standards  here  in  America  in  the  tenet 
of  hope,  as  a  beacon  of  encouragement  to  all 
the  nations  of  the  world ;  and  men  came  throng- 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     121 

ing  to  these  shores  with  an  expectancy  that 
never  existed  before,  with  a  confidence  they 
never  dared  feel  before,  and  found  here  for 
generations  together  a  haven  of  peace,  of  op 
portunity,  of  equality. 

"God  send  that  in  the  complicated  state  of 
modern  affairs  we  may  recover  the  standards 
and  repeat  the  achievements  of  that  heroic 
age!" 

Let  us  recover  our  standards,  he  said,  for 
they  have  been  lost.  America  is  "in  a  fair  way 
of  failure — tragic  failure,"  menaced  by  a  new 
form  of  slavery  which  must  be  fought  by  a  new 
freedom.  Who  are  the  masters  attempting  to 
dominate  the  country?  They  are  the  great 
financiers,  the  Magnates  who  corrupt  the  Par 
ties,  who  through  the  Parties  grip  the  Con 
gress  and  through  the  Congress  paralyse  the 
President,  the  direct  agent  of  the  People. 
Energetic  action  must  be  taken  against  them. 
"It  may  be  too  late  to  turn  back." 

What  can  be  done  ?  *  The  healthy  and  open 
alliance  existing  between  the  President  and  the 
People  must  be  so  organised  as  to  dissolve  the 
secret  and  unwholesome  connivance  of  Mag 
nates  and  Congress.  The  President  must  be 

»^ 

*Cf.    M.    Jean    Lzoulet's   introduction    to    "La    Nouvelle 
Liberte  "  p.  16. 


122  President  Wilson 

freed.  "The  idea  of  the  Presidents  we  have 
recently  had  has  been  that  they  were  Presi 
dents  of  a  National  Board  of  Trustees.  That 
is  not  my  idea.  I  have  been  President  of  one 
board  of  trustees,  and  I  do  not  care  to  have 
another  on  my  hands.  I  want  to  be  President 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States."  The  na 
tion  must  be  freed  and  the  constitution  modi 
fied,  or  trouble  would  follow.  Three  new  pow 
ers  were  necessary.  There  must  be  the  right 
of  Referendum,  that  is  to  say  the  right  to  re 
ject  at  need  any  law  the  Congress  may  seek  to 
impose.  This  in  itself  is  not  sufficient.  There 
must  be  the  right  of  Initiative,  the  inverse 
right  to  impose  upon  Congress  any  law  Con 
gress  may  wish  to  elude.  To  these  double 
powers  of  Initiative  and  Referendum  must  be 
added  the  third  power  of  Revocation,  the 
power  of  revoking,  according  to  certain  defi 
nite  procedure,  administrative  officials. 

"Let  no  man  be  deceived  by  the  cry  that 
somebody  is  proposing  to  substitute  direct  leg 
islation  by  the  people,  or  the  direct  reference 
of  laws  passed  in  the  legislature  to  the  vote 
of  the  people,  for  representative  government. 
The  advocates  of  these  reforms  have  always 
declared,  and  declared  in  unmistakable  terms, 
that  they  were  intending  to  recover  representa 
tive  government,  not  supersede  it;  that  the 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     123 

initiative  and  referendum  would  find  no  use  in 
places  where  legislatures  were  really  repre 
sentative  of  the  people  whom  they  were  elected 
to  serve.  The  initiative  is  a  means  of  seeing 
to  it  that  measures  which  the  people  want  shall 
be  passed — when  legislatures  defy  or  -ignore 
public  opinion.  The  referendum  is  a  means  of 
seeing  to  it  that  the  unrepresentative  measures 
which  they  do  not  want  shall  not  be  placed  upon 
the  statute  book. 

"When  you  come  to  the  recall,  the  principle 
is  that  if  an  administrative  officer — for  we  will 
begin  with  the  administrative  officer — is  cor 
rupt  or  so  unwise  as  to  be  doing  things  that  are 
likely  to  lead  to  all  sorts  of  mischief,  it  will  be 
possible  by  a  deliberate  process  prescribed  by 
the  law  to  get  rid  of  that  officer  before  the  end 
of  his  term.  You  must  admit  that  it  is  a  little 
inconvenient  sometimes  to  have  what  has  been 
called  an  astronomical  system  of  government, 
in  which  you  can't  change  anything  until  there 
has  been  a  certain  number  of  revolutions  of 
the  season.  In  many  of  our  oldest  states  the 
ordinary  administrative  term  is  a  single  year. 
The  people  of  those  states  have  not  been  willing 
to  trust  an  official  out  of  their  sight  more  than 
twelve  months.  Elections  there  are  a  sort  of 
continuous  performance,  based  on  the  idea  of 
the  constant  touch  of  the  hand  of  the  people  on 


124  President  Wilson 

their  own  affairs.  That  is  exactly  the  princi 
ple  of  the  recall.  I  don't  see  how  any  man 
grounded  in  the  traditions  of  American  affairs 
can  find  any  valid  objection  to  the  recall  of  ad 
ministrative  officers.  The  meaning  of  the  re 
call  is  this — not  that  we  should  have  unstable 
government,  not  that  officials  should  not  know 
how  long  their  power  might  last — but  that  we 
might  have  government  exercised  by  officials 
who  know  whence  their  power  came  and  that 
if  they  yield  to  private  influences  they  will 
presently  be  displaced  by  public  influences. 

"You  will  of  course  understand  that,  both 
in  the  case  of  the  initiative  and  referendum  and 
in  that  of  the  recall,  the  very  existence  of  these 
institutions,  the  very  possibilities  which  they 
imply,  are  half — indeed,  much  more  than  half 
— the  battle.  They  rarely  need  to  be  actually 
exercised.  The  fact  that  the  people  may  initi 
ate  keeps  the  members  of  the  legislature  awake 
to  the  necessity  of  initiating  themselves;  the 
fact  that  the  people  have  the  right  to  demand 
the  submission  of  a  legislative  measure  to  pop 
ular  vote  renders  the  members  of  the  legisla 
ture  wary  of  bills  that  would  not  pass  the  peo 
ple;  the  very  possibility  of  being  recalled  puts 
the  official  on  his  best  behaviour." 

President  and  People  being  thus  strength 
ened  and  in  unison  must  employ  their  force  to 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     125 

reduce  the  power  of  the  "Magnates."  How 
can  it  be  diminished?  By  the  reform  of  the 
protectionist  tariff,  the  reform  of  the  banking 
system,  the  establishment  of  public  control  of 
all  trusts.  The  reform  of  the  protectionist 
tariff  would  come  first. 

"Under  the  high  tariff  there  has  been  formed 
a  network  of  factories,  which  in  their  connec 
tion  dominate  the  market  of  the  United  States 
and  establish  their  own  prices.  Whereas, 
therefore,  it  was  once  arguable  that  the  high 
tariff  did  not  create  the  high  cost  of  living,  it 
is  now  no  longer  arguable  that  these  combina 
tions  do  not — not  by  reason  of  the  tariff,  but 
by  reason  of  their  combination  under  the  tariff 
— settle  what  prices  shall  be  paid;  settle  how 
much  the  product  shall  be ;  and  settle  what  shall 
be  the  market  for  labour. 

"The  'protective'  policy,  as  we  hear  it  pro 
claimed  to-day,  bears  no  relation  to  the  orig 
inal  doctrine  enunciated  by  Webster  and  Clay. 
The  'infant  industries/  which  those  statesmen 
desired  to  encourage,  have  grown  up  and 
grown  grey,  but  they  have  always  had  new 
arguments  for  special  favours.  Their  de 
mands  have  gone  far  beyond  what  they  dared 
ask  for  in  the  days  of  Mr.  Elaine  and  Mr.  Mc- 
Kinley,  though  both  those  apostles  of  'protec 
tion'  were,  before  they  died,  ready  to  confess 


126  President  Wilson 

that  the  time  had  even  then  come  to  call  a  halt 
on  the  claims  of  the  subsidised  industries. 
William  McKinley,  before  he  died,  showed 
symptoms  of  adjustment  to  the  new  age  such 
as  his  successors  have  not  exhibited.  You  re 
member  how  he  joined  in  opinion  with  what 
Mr.  Elaine  before  him  had  said;  namely,  that 
we  had  devoted  the  country  to  a  policy  which, 
too  rigidly  persisted  in,  was  proving  a  policy 
of  restriction;  and  that  we  must  look  forward 
to  a  time  that  ought  to  come  very  soon  when 
we  should  enter  into  reciprocal  relations  of 
trade  with  all  the  countries  of  the  world.  This 
was  another  way  of  saying  that  we  must  sub 
stitute  elasticity  for  rigidity;  that  we  must 
substitute  trade  for  closed  ports.  McKinley 
saw  what  his  successors  did  not  see.  He  saw 
that  we  had  made  for  ourselves  a  strait- 
jacket. 

".  .  .  We  mean  that  our  tariff  legislation 
henceforth  shall  have  as  its  object,  not  private 
profit,  but  the  general  public  development  and 
benefit;  we  shall  make  our  fiscal  laws,  not  like 
those  who  dole  out  favours,  but  like  those  who 
serve  a  nation.  We  are  going  to  begin  with 
those  particular  items  where  we  find  special 
privilege  entrenched.  We  know  what  those 
items  are;  these  gentlemen  have  been  kind 
enough  to  point  them  out  themselves.  What 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     127 

we  are  interested  in  first  of  all  with  regard  to 
the  tariff  is  getting  the  grip  of  special  inter 
ests  off  the  throat  of  Congress.  We  do  not 
propose  that  special  interests  shall  any  longer 
camp  in  the  rooms  of  the  Committee  on  Ways 
and  Means  of  the  House  and  the  Finance 
Committee  of  the  Senate.  We  mean  that  those 
shall  be  places  where  the  people  of  the  United 
States  shall  come  and  be  represented,  in  order 
that  everything  may  be  done  in  the  general 
interest,  and  not  in  the  interest  of  particular 
groups  of  persons  who  already  dominate  the 
industries  and  the  industrial  development  of 
this  country.  Because,  no  matter  how  wise 
these  gentlemen  may  be,  no  matter  how  patri 
otic,  no  matter  how  singularly  they  may  be 
gifted  with  the  power  to  divine  the  right 
courses  of  business,  there  isn't  any  group  of 
men  in  the  United  States,  or  in  any  other  coun 
try,  that  is  wise  enough  to  have  the  destinies 
of  a  great  people  put  into  their  hands  as  trus 
tees.  We  mean  that  business  in  this  land  shall 
be  released,  emancipated. 

"Afterwards,  by  the  revision  of  the  banking 
system,  the  power  of  the  Magnates  could  be  at 
tacked.  The  banking  system  was  old-fash 
ioned,  out  of  date,  and  bad  in  every  respect. 
The  Magnates  allowed  it  to  continue  because 
they  knew  that  on  the  day  of  reformation  the 


128  President  Wilson 

federal  state  would  insist  upon  becoming  an 
associated  manager  in  the  administration  of 
national  monetary  reserves.  The  moment  for 
this  reform  could  not  be  delayed.  The  Mag 
nates  must  become  accustomed  to  the  idea  that 
the  public  has  the  right  to  see  clearly  into  their 
business.  They  must  resign  themselves  to  the 
necessity  of  opening  their  books  and  submit 
ting  their  documents  to  the  State  Commis 
sioners. 

"A  modern  joint  stock  corporation  is  a 
segment  of  the  public;  bears  no  analogy  to  a 
partnership  or  to  the  processes  by  which  pri 
vate  property  is  safeguarded  and  managed, 
and  should  not  be  suffered  to  afford  any  covert 
whatever  to  those  who  are  managing  it.  Its 
management  is  of  public  and  general  concern, 
is  in  a  very  proper  sense  everybody's  business. 
The  business  of  many  of  these  corporations 
which  we  call  public-service  corporations,  and 
which  are  indispensable  to  our  daily  lives  and 
serve  us  with  transportation  and  light  and 
water  and  power, — their  business,  for  instance, 
is  public  business;  and,  therefore,  we  can  and 
must  penetrate  their  affairs  by  the  light  of  ex 
amination  and  discussion. 

"In  New  Jersey,  the  people  have  realised 
this  for  a  long  time,  and  a  year  or  two  ago 
we  got  our  ideas  on  the  subject  enacted  into 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     129 

legislation.  The  corporations  involved  op 
posed  the  legislation  with  all  their  might.  They 
talked  about  ruin — and  I  really  believe  they 
did  think  they  would  be  somewhat  injured. 
But  they  have  not  been.  And  I  hear  I  cannot 
tell  you  how  many  men  in  New  Jersey  say, 
'Governor,  we  were  opposed  to  you ;  we  did  not 
believe  in  the  things  you  wanted  to  do,  but  now 
that  you  have  done  them,  we  take  off  our  hats. 
That  was  the  thing  to  do,  it  did  not  hurt  us  a 
bit ;  it  just  put  us  on  a  normal  footing ;  it  took 
away  suspicion  from  our  business/  New  Jer 
sey,  having  taken  the  cold  plunge,  cries  out  to 
the  rest  of  the  states,  'Come  on  in !  The  wa 
ter's  fine!'  I  wonder  whether  these  men  who 
are  controlling  the  government  of  the  United 
States  realise  how  they  are  creating  every  year 
a  thickening  atmosphere  of  suspicion,  in  which 
presently  they  will  find  that  business  cannot 
breathe. 

"So  I  take  it  to  be  a  necessity  of  the  hour 
to  open  up  all  the  processes  of  politics  and  of 
public  business — open  them  wide  to  public 
view;  to  make  them  accessible  to  every  force 
that  moves,  every  opinion  that  prevails  in  the 
thought  of  the  people;  to  give  society  com 
mand  of  its  own  economic  life  again,  not  by 
revolutionary  measures,  but  by  a  steady  appli 
cation  of  the  principle  that  the  people  have  a 


130  President  Wilson 

right  to  look  into  such  matters  and  to  control 
them;  to  cut  all  privileges  and  patronage  and 
private  advantage  and  secret  enjoyment  out  of 
legislation. 

"Wherever  any  public  business  is  transacted, 
wherever  plans  affecting  the  public  are  laid,  or 
enterprises  touching  the  public  welfare,  com 
fort  and  convenience  go  forward,  wherever 
political  programmes  are  formulated,  or  candi 
dates  agreed  on — over  that  place  a  voice  must 
speak,  with  the  divine  prerogative  of  a  people's 
will,  the  words:  'Let  there  be  light!'  " 

Such,  in  their  main  lines,  were  the  politics 
of  the  candidate  Wilson.  It  was  not  a  con 
servative  policy.  Supported  by  a  popular  en 
thusiasm,  which  was  directly  excited,  it  kept 
in  sight  and  aimed  at  constitutional  modifica 
tions.  It  was  not  a  revolutionary  policy.  It 
desired  the  reinforcement  of  the  powers  of  the 
state,  and  the  subordination  of  the  parts  to 
the  whole.  It  was  at  once  a  popular  and  au 
thoritative  policy  which  we  may  call  Caesarian. 
Mr.  Wilson  entitled  the  collection  of  speeches 
made  during  the  electoral  campaign  "The  New 
Freedom."  The  qualification  is  prudent,  for 
the  freedom  he  promised  was  assuredly  new, 
and  a  nineteenth-century  Liberal  would  hardly 
recognise  it.  "Human  freedom,"  he  said  in  one 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     131 

of  his  addresses,  "consists  in  perfect  adjust 
ment  of  human  interests  and  human  activities 
and  human  energies  to  one  another."  This 
interlocking  has  no  relationship  with  that  quest 
for  independence  of  thought  and  life  which 
formed  the  old  liberalism.  Mr.  Wilson  knew 
this,  and  was  not  frightened.  This  man,  pas 
sionate  in  his  desire  for  action,  belongs  with 
out  reserve  to  his  time.  And  this  age,  as  he 
recognised,  is  not  for  the  individual  but  for  the 
mass.  When  the  life  of  the  whole  mass  is  as 
sured,  and  when  their  elected  control  governs 
with  their  unbroken  consent,  then,  according 
to  Mr.  Wilson,  liberty  is  being  enjoyed. 

"What  is  liberty?"  he  asked  again.  "You 
say  of  the  locomotive  that  it  runs  free.  What 
do  you  mean  ?  You  mean  that  its  parts  are  so 
assembled  and  adjusted  that  friction  is  reduced 
to  a  minimum,  and  that  it  has  perfect  adjust 
ment.  We  say  of  a  boat  skimming  the  water 
with  light  foot,  'How  free  she  runs/  when 
we  mean,  how  perfectly  she  is  adjusted  to  the 
force  of  the  wind,  how  perfectly  she  obeys  the 
great  breath  out  of  the  heavens  that  fills  her 
sails.  Throw  her  head  up  into  the  wind  and 
see  how  she  will  halt  and  stagger,  how  every 
sheet  will  shiver  and  her  whole  frame  be 
shaken,  how  instantly  she  is  'in  irons/  in  the 
expressive  phrase  of  the  sea.  She  is  free  only 


132  President  Wilson 

when  you  have  let  her  fall  off  again  and  have 
recovered  once  more  her  nice  adjustment  to  the 
forces  she  must  obey  and  cannot  defy." 

The  concentration  of  power,  and  the  unani 
mous  consent  of  the  populace, — this  is  what 
President  Wilson  calls  "liberty." 

We  must  not  forget  that  the  word  liberty 
has  other  meanings.  However,  this  political 
idea,  as  he  expressed  it,  is  human  and  generous 
enough,  if  not  strictly  liberal.  Such  a  policy 
is  always  attentive  to  the  feelings  of  the  people, 
and  always  endeavours  to  seek  their  consent 
and  to  obtain  their  response. 

Would  Mr.  Wilson  be  elected?  He  had  the 
disadvantage  of  standing  as  the  candidate  of 
a  party  which  had  been  defeated  for  fifteen 
years,  a  party  which  had  lost  the  habit  of  vic 
tory.  He  had  the  advantage  of  being  opposed 
by  a  victorious  party  which  had  been  worn  by 
its  victories.  The  republican  party,  so  proud 
of  its  power,  had  been  split  by  a  schism.  The 
conservatives  broke  away  from  the  progres 
sives,  the  first  voting  for  Taft,  the  second  for 
Roosevelt.  Taft  had  the  benefit  of  the  old 
party  organisation,  Roosevelt  the  enjoyment  of 
his  personal  strength  and  immense  popularity. 
He  fought  for  a  programme  very  similar  to 
that  of  Governor  Wilson.  But  he  was  sup- 


The  First  Presidential  Candidature     133 

ported  by  partisans  rather  than  by  a  party,  and 
that  spoilt  his  chances. 

The  American  presidential  election  is  di 
vided  into  two  parts.  The  original  idea  of  the 
founders  of  the  constitution  was  to  take  from 
the  mass  its  initiative  of  choice  and  to  hand 
it  over  entirely  to  a  body  of  chosen  delegates. 
Each  state  named  a  certain  number  of  dele 
gates  proportionate  to  the  figure  of  its  popu 
lation,  down  to  a  minimum  of  three,  which 
could  not  be  further  reduced.  New  York 
State,  for  example,  possesses  forty-five  votes, 
Pennsylvania  thirty-eight,  Delaware,  Nevada, 
and  Wyoming,  three  each.  The  process  takes 
a  long  time,  but  practice  has  disappointed  the 
intentions  of  the  drafters  of  the  constitution. 
The  political  parties  and  the  people  very  quickly 
reaffirmed  their  power,  the  parties  by  selecting 
long  in  advance  their  presidential  candidates, 
the  people  by  imposing  on  the  delegates  their 
imperative  mandate  for  one  candidate  or  the 
other.  A  choice  is  made  between  two  or  three 
candidates  proposed  by  the  parties.  In  each 
State  the  delegates  vote,  and  the  vote  of  the  en 
tire  State  is  given  to  the  successful  candidate. 
The  system  is  rudimentary,  and  minorities  are 
wiped  out.  The  result  is  that  in  New  York 
State  a  majority  of  eleven  hundred  votes  gives 
the  casting  vote  in  an  electoral  body  of  more 


134  President  Wilson 

than  a  million  electors,  determines  the  election 
of  thirty-six  decocratic  delegates,  and  wipes  out 
the  views  of  a  republican  minority  consisting  of 
more  than  forty-nine  per  cent  of  the  electorate. 
The  system  can  even  overcome  a  majority. 
Let  us  imagine  three  lists  of  delegates  proposed 
to  the  electoral  body.  One  obtains  six,  another 
four,  a  third  three,  total  thirteen.  That  will 
give  seven  divided  against  six  massed.  The 
six  have  the  advantage  that  their  votes  will 
represent  the  thirteen.  These  facts  must  be 
remembered  to  understand  Mr.  Wilson's  first 
election.  He  was  elected  although  he  had  not 
the  majority  of  the  popular  vote.  This  can 
be  seen  in  the  figures. 

Delegate  Popular 

Votes  Votes 

Wilson  . . . 435  6,286,087 

Roosevelt 88  4,125,804 

Taft 8  3475>8i3 

Debs  (socialist) o  895,892 

Chafin  (prohibitionist) O  200,772 

Reinur  (labour) o  38,814 

Thus  Mr.  Wilson,  having  obtained  6,286,- 
087  votes  against  8,737,295,  that  is  to  say,  be 
ing  in  a  minority  of  2,450,308  votes,  was 
elected  the  supreme  head  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States. 


VI — The  Presidency:  Reforms 


WHAT  kind  of  a  President  was  the 
country  about  to  have?  Mr.  Taft 
had  been  a  prudent  and  conserva 
tive  head  of  the  state.  He  had 
administered  public  affairs  in  the  manner  of 
a  scientific  and  peaceful  jurist.  Mr.  Wilson's 
past  was  in  itself  a  clear  warning  that  he  would 
act  in  quite  a  different  way.  Would  he  be  a 
new  Roosevelt?  The  two  men  were  far  from 
alike — one  bubbling  over  with  words,  exuber 
ant,  a  sort  of  Niagara,  the  other  a  being  of  ice, 
a  living  enigma.  "The  elongated  features, 
from  forehead  to  the  large  and  slightly  pro 
jecting  chin,  mark  tenacity  and  stubbornness," 
wrote  an  excellent  French  observer,  M.  Le- 
chartier,  in  the  Journal  des  Debats,  April  19, 
1916.  "The  thin  lips,  with  their  vague  bitter 
ness  and  sense  of  disallusion,  in  their  very 
smile  add  a  sarcasm  to  his  words.  His  looks, 
generally  fixed  on  the  ground,  though  soft,  ex 
press  fatigue  or  an  unutterable  weariness.  His 
voice  is  musical,  and  rather  deeper  than  the  or 
dinary.  In  public  and  open  air  speaking  it 
gathers  strength  but  never  warmth.  His  ges- 

135 


136  President  Wilson 

tures  are  generally  very  restrained,  but  in  front 
of  an  audience,  from  a  platform,  they  become 
amplified  and  automatically  sweeping  and 
jerky,  punctuating  and  marking  his  thoughts 
so  academically  and  magnificently  expressed. 
In  attitude,  manner,  and  appearance  he  ap 
pears  to  keep  a  constant  watch  upon  himself. 
His  height  apparently  increased  because  he  is 
thin,  the  President  of  the  United  States  gives 
at  first  sight  a  very  strong  impression  of  re 
serve,  self-control,  and  coldness.  This  im 
pression  becomes  stronger  at  each  meeting,  and 
it  certainly  becomes  extremely  difficult  to  pen 
etrate  this  chilliness,  and  to  know  the  person 
ality  of  the  President  of  the  United  States." 

How  Mr.  Wilson  was  going  to  govern  was 
not  known.  But  one  thing  was  sure.  He 
would  govern.  His  inaugural  address,  deliv 
ered  in  March,  1913,  was  very  lofty  in  tone. 
The  moving  peroration,  read  in  the  light  of  to 
day's  knowledge,  appears  startling. 

'The  feelings  with  which  we  face  this  new 
age  of  right  and  opportunity  sweep  across  our 
heart  strings  like  some  air  out  of  God's  own 
presence,  where  justice  and  mercy  are  recon 
ciled  and  the  judge  and  the  brother  are  one. 
We  know  our  task  to  be  no  mere  task  of  poli 
tics,  but  a  task  which  shall  search  us  through 
and  through,  whether  we  be  able  to  understand 


The  Presidency:  Reforms  137 

our  time  and  the  need  of  our  people,  whether 
we  be  indeed  their  spokesmen  and  interpreters, 
whether  we  have  the  pure  heart  to  compre 
hend  and  the  rectified  will  to  choose  our  high 
course  of  action.  This  is  not  a  day  of  tri 
umph  ;  it  is  a  day  of  dedication.  Here  muster, 
not  the  forces  of  party,  but  the  forces  of  hu 
manity.  Men's  hearts  wait  upon  us;  men's 
lives  hang  in  the  balance ;  men's  hopes  call  upon 
us  to  say  what  we  will  do.  Who  shall  live  up 
to  the  great  trust  ?  Who  dares  fail  to  try  ?  I 
summon  all  honest  men,  all  patriotic,  all  for 
ward-looking  men,  to  my  side.  God  helping 
me,  I  will  not  fail  them,  if  they  will  but  coun 
sel  and  sustain  me." 

Soon  appeared  an  indication  of  the  line  he 
was  likely  to  take,  a  small  thing  in  appearance 
but  of  great  signification.  The  American 
Presidents  have  the  prerogative  of  naming — 
either  alone  or  with  the  assent  of  the  Senate 
— a  large  number  of  administrative  officials. 
This  prerogative  is  nevertheless  an  extremely 
absorbing  and  heavy  charge.  "The  mere  task 
of  making  appointments  to  office,  which  the 
constitution  imposes  upon  the  President  [wrote 
Mr.  Wilson  in  Constitutional  Government  in 
the  United  States]  has  come  near  to  breaking 
some  of  our  Presidents  down,  because  it  is  a 
never-ending  task  in  a  civil  service  not  yet  put 


138  President  Wilson 

upon  a  professional  footing,  confused  with 
short  terms  of  office,  always  forming  and  dis 
solving."  Overwhelming  as  was  this  preroga 
tive,  the  Presidents  had  always  been  jealous  to 
retain  its  exercise  because  of  the  powerful  per 
sonal  influence  it  placed  in  their  hands.  Presi 
dent  Wilson  decided  to  hand  the  privilege  over 
to  his  Secretaries  of  State.  He  announced 
that  he  would  delegate  his  powers  of  nomina 
tion  for  each  administrative  department  to  the 
chief  of  that  department.  His  intention  was 
to  devote  the  whole  of  his  time  to  the  governing 
of  the  state.  The  publication  of  this  radical 
decision  made  an  impression,  and  gave  the 
President  an  added  respect. 

This  early  sign  of  his  will  was  soon  followed 
by  a  more  startling  manifestation.  In  his 
juvenile  essay  upon  cabinet  government,  when 
examining  for  the  first  time  the  political  con 
ditions  of  his  country,  it  will  be  remembered 
that  he  asked  for  more  concentration  and  unity 
in  the  sources  of  power.  "The  executive  has 
constantly  need  of  the  co-operation  of  the  leg 
islative/'  he  wrote.  'The  Legislature  should 
be  assisted  by  an  Executive  capable  of  intelli 
gently  and  vigorously  carrying  out  its  acts." 
Thus  President  Wilson  expressed  himself  in 
1879.  In  April,  1913,  he  acted.  The  act  of 
the  man  was  an  exact  confirmation  of  the 


The  Presidency-  Reforms  139 

youth's  thoughts.  The  act  in  itself  was  sim 
ple.  President  Wilson  announced  that  in 
stead  of  forwarding  a  written  Message  to  Con 
gress  he  would  attend  in  person  and  read  his 
Message. 

Amongst  the  politicians  emotion  was  ex 
treme.  That  the  President  had  the  right  was 
certain.  The  constitution  expressly  gave  it. 
The  two  first  elected  Presidents,  Washington 
and  John  Adams,  had  always  spoken  to  Con 
gress  when  they  had  something  to  say.  But 
their  successor,  Jefferson,  who  was  an  indif 
ferent  orator  and  a  democratically-minded  en 
emy  of  the  very  appearance  of  power,  had 
abandoned  a  privilege  no  successor  had  re 
sumed.  Not  a  single  president  since  Novem 
ber  22,  1800,  had  entered  Congress.  One  hun 
dred  and  thirteen  years  is  almost  long  enough 
for  the  loss  of  a  right  by  prescription.  The 
politicians  were  stupefied.  Some  wished  to  re 
sist.  On  April  7,  eve  of  the  day  fixed  by  Pres 
ident  Wilson  for  the  solemnity,  at  a  prepara 
tory  meeting  two  senators  expressed  their  re 
grets  and  objections.  The  custom  was  primi 
tive  and  obsolete;  its  restoration  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  the  American  constitution.  Their 
colleagues  listened  with  attention.  But  what 
could  they  do?  The  President  had  a  support 
stronger  even  than  right.  He  had  the  assent 


140  President  Wilson 

of  the  public  and  of  the  masses.  Some  said 
With  a  frown,  "the  President  in  Congress?  A 
speech  from  the  throne !"  People  who  heard 
these  remarks  laughed  and  passed  on.  The 
senators  accepted  the  position  with  resignation, 
and  did  not  put  up  a  resistance  for  which  all 
support  was  lacking. 

On  April  8  the  President  came  to  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  senators  preceded 
him  to  the  chamber,  marching  two  by  two,  and 
led  by  Mr.  Marshall,  Vice-President  of  the  Re 
public. 

"Senators  and  Representatives,"  announced 
Speaker  Clark,  "I  have  the  honour  to  present 
the  President  of  the  United  States." 

President  Wilson  rose  and  spoke.  His  first 
words  were  a  familiar  and  simple  explanation 
of  his  presence. 

"I  am  very  happy  that  the  occasion  has  been 
given  me  to  speak  directly  to  the  two  Houses 
and  to  verify  for  myself  the  impression  that 
the  President  of  the  United  States  is  not  a  mere 
department  of  the  Government,  hailing  Con 
gress  from  some  isolated  island  of  jealous  au 
thority,  and  sending  messages  instead  of  speak 
ing  naturally  and  with  his  own  voice.  I  am 
happy  to  show  at  last  that  he  is  a  human  be 
ing,  trying  to  co-operate  with  other  human  be 
ings  in  a  common  service.  This  experience  is 


The  Presidency:  Reforms  141 

pleasing  to  me.  And  in  future,  in  the  rela 
tionship  we  will  have  together,  it  will  be  the 
normal  one." 

A  serious  innovation  was  thus  introduced 
methodically  and  skilfully.  His  manner  was 
successful  and  pleased.  The  President  then 
read  his  message.  He  indicated  with  preci 
sion  the  urgency  of  tariff  reform  and  the  prin 
ciples  which  should  guide  it.  "It  is  plain  what 
those  principles  must  be.  We  must  abolish 
everything  that  bears  even  the  semblance  of 
privilege  or  of  any  kind  of  artificial  advantage, 
and  put  our  business  men  and  producers  un 
der  the  stimulation  of  a  constant  necessity  to 
be  efficient,  economical  and  enterprising  mas 
ters  of  competitive  supremacy,  better  workers 
and  merchants  than  any  in  the  world/' 

The  next  day  the  President  again  attended 
Congress,  and  in  the  Presidential  cabinet,  un 
til  then  so  rarely  occupied,  he  discussed  with 
the  chairmen  of  committees  and  the  leaders  of 
the  groups  the  immediate  preparation  of  a 
scheme  of  tariff  reform. 

Such  discussions  are  always  difficult.  Presi 
dent  Wilson  had  perfectly  analysed  their  se 
cret  mechanism  in  a  study  published  in  the 
North  American  Review  for  October,  1909. 

"The  methods  by  which  tariff  bills  are  con- 


142  President  Wilson 

structed  have  now  become  all  too  familiar  and 
throw  a  significant  light  on  the  character  of  the 
legislation  involved.  Debate  in  the  Houses  has 
little  or  nothing  to  do  with  it.  The  process 
by  which  such  a  bill  is  made  is  private  not  pub 
lic,  because  the  reasons  which  underlie  many 
of  the  rates  imposed  are  private.  The 
stronger  faction  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Com 
mittee  of  the  House  makes  up  the  preliminary 
bill,  with  the  assistance  of  'experts'  whom  it 
permits  the  industries  most  concerned  to  sup 
ply  for  its  guidance.  The  controlling  members 
of  the  Committee  also  determine  what  amend 
ments,  if  any,  shall  be  accepted,  either  from 
the  minority  faction  of  the  Committee,  or  from 
the  House  itself.  It  permits  itself  to  be  dic 
tated  to,  if  at  all,  only  by  the  imperative  ac 
tion  of  a  party  caucus.  The  stronger  faction 
of  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate,  in  like 
fashion,  frames  the  bill  which  it  intends  to  sub 
stitute  for  the  one  sent  up  from  the  House.  It 
is  often  to  be  found  at  work  on  it  before  any 
bill  reaches  it  from  the  popular  chamber.  The 
compromise  between  the  two  measures  is  ar 
ranged  in  private  conference  by  conferees 
drawn  from  the  two  committees.  What  takes 
place  in  the  committees  and  in  the  conference 
is  confidential.  It  is  considered  impertinent 
for  reporters  to  inquire.  It  is  admitted  to  be 


The  Presidency:  Reforms  143 

the  business  of  the  manufacturers  concerned, 
but  not  the  business  of  the  public,  who  are  to 
pay  the  rates.  The  debates  which  the  country 
is  invited  to  hear  in  the  open  sessions  of  the 
Houses  are  merely  formal.  They  determine 
nothing-  and  disclose  very  little.  It  is  the  pol 
icy  of  silence  and  secrecy,  indeed,  with  regard 
to  the  whole  process  that  makes  it  absolutely 
inconsistent  with  every  standard  of  public  duty 
and  political  integrity." 

This  was  the  position  in  1909,  when  an  abor 
tive  attempt  was  made  towards  tariff  reform. 
Upon  the  resumption  of  parliamentary  labours 
in  April,  1913,  the  matter  took  the  same  turn, 
and  the  intrigues  of  the  corridors,  of  the 
"lobby"  according  to  the  phrase  in  the  United 
States,  were  directed  against  the  proposed 
measure.  President  Wilson  was  prepared  for 
opposition,  but  he  knew  his  strength  and  was 
sure  to  reach  his  aim.  He  was  strong  because 
tariff  reform  was  the  only  reform  for  which 
the  Democratic  party  was  wholly  and  tradi 
tionally  united.  There  were  Democrats  who 
were  opposed  to  trusts  or  who  benefited  by 
trusts.  There  were  democratic  Democrats 
and  also  aristocratic  or  plutocratic  Democrats. 
There  were  Northern  Democrats  and  South 
ern  Democrats.  There  were  Democrats  who 
had  successively  voted  for  the  Republicans  Me- 


President  Wilson 


Kinley,  Roosevelt,  and  Taft,  as  well  as  those 
who  had  voted  with  more  or  less  enthusiasm 
for  Bryan.  But  scarcely  one  had  ever  pro 
tested  against  the  reduction  of  the  tariff.  And, 
in  addition,  the  President  was  strong  because 
this  reduction,  at  the  moment  he  asked  for  it, 
was  nothing  less  and  nothing  more  than  a 
means  of  fighting  the  power  of  the  trusts.  It 
was  a  national  necessity,  the  need  of  which 
had  been  admitted  by  the  Republicans  when,  in 
1909,  they  had  attempted  the  same  task.  The 
United  States  had  surrounded  themselves  with 
a  tariff  barrier  at  a  time  when  they  had  to  pro 
tect  rising  industries.  That  was  sensible. 
But  the  question  for  them  now  was  the  de 
velopment  of  powerful  industries,  the  opening 
up  of  world  markets.  The  old  barrier  had  be 
come  useless  and  detrimental.  President  Wil 
son's  determination  was  sound,  and  he  was  able 
to  impose  it  without  fear.  He  openly  de 
clared  that  he  was  in  agreement  with  the  par 
liamentary  leaders,  and  that  he  did  not  seek 
for,  nor  would  he  accept,  any  compromise. 
The  "lobby,"  however,  persisted.  Already  the 
amendments  were  numerous,  and  they  threat 
ened  to  equal  in  number  the  famous  army  of 
847  which  had  emasculated  the  1909  reform. 
The  President  intervened  in  a  most  novel  and 
unexpected  fashion.  He  published  a  sort  of 


The  Presidency:  Reforms  145 

communique,  which  was  in  fact  an  appeal  to  the 
nation. 

"I  think  that  the  public  ought  to  know  the 
extraordinary  exertions  being  made  by  the 
lobby  in  Washington  to  gain  recognition  for 
certain  alterations  of  the  Tariff  Bill.  Wash 
ington  has  seldom  seen  so  numerous,  so  indus 
trious,  or  so  insidious  a  lobby.  The  news 
papers  are  being  filled  with  paid  advertise 
ments  calculated  to  mislead  not  only  the  judg 
ment  of  the  public  men,  but  also  the  public  opin 
ion  of  the  country  itself.  There  is  every  evi 
dence  that  money  without  limit  is  being  spent 
to  maintain  this  lobby,  and  to  create  the  ap 
pearance  of  a  pressure  of  public  opinion  antag 
onistic  to  some  of  the  chief  items  of  the  Tar 
iff  Bill. 

"It  is  of  serious  interest  to  the  country  that 
the  people  at  large  should  have  no  lobby,  and 
be  voiceless  in  these  matters,  while  great  bod 
ies  of  astute  men  seek  to  create  an  artificial 
opinion  and  to  overcome  the  interests  of  the 
public  for  their  private  profit.  It  is  thor 
oughly  worth  the  while  of  the  people  of  this 
country  to  take  knowledge  of  this  matter. 
Only  public  opinion  can  check  and  destroy  it. 

"The  Government  in  all  its  branches  ought 
to  be  relieved  of  this  intolerable  burden  and 
this  constant  interruption  to  the  calm  prog- 


146  President  Wilson 

ress  of  debate.  I  know  that  in  this  I  am  speak 
ing  for  the  members  of  the  two  Houses,  who 
would  rejoice  as  much  as  I  would  to  be  released 
from  this  unbearable  situation." 

Never  had  a  presidential  document  made  so 
great  an  impression,  never  was  intervention 
more  efficacious.  The  "lobby"  suddenly  ceased, 
and  the  reform  was  voted. 

Without  loss  of  time  another  proposed  re 
form  was  laid  before  Congress.  As  president 
of  a  university,  as  governor  of  a  state,  and  here 
again  in  his  new  office,  Mr.  Wilson  revealed 
himself  as  an  incomparable  director  and  stim 
ulator  of  assembled  bodies.  He  knew  how  to 
select  his  aims,  and  how  to  advance  them  by 
overthrowing  all  obstacles.  This  is  his  genius. 
This  peculiar  strength,  for  so  long  confined  by 
the  calm  existence  of  a  professorial  career,  pre 
sents  a  curious  picture.  And,  still  more  sin 
gular,  this  public  man  is  a  very  solitary  man. 
He  had  always  been  distant  in  manner ;  he  was* 
now  becoming  unapproachable.  He  saw  his 
secretaries  of  state  during  strictly  limited  in 
terviews.  Upon  any  particular  question  he 
preferred  to  receive  a  report  rather  than  ad 
vice.  The  deponent  is  called,  he  is  invited  to 
speak,  and  the  President  listens,  sometimes  tak 
ing  a  rapid  shorthand  note.  "I  have  con- 


The  Presidency:  Reforms  147 

stantly  remarked  in  the  business  with  which  I 
occupy  myself  that  there  is  nobody  who  does 
not  know  something  that  I  do  not  know,  but 
few  who  know  more  things  than  I  know."  He 
allows  then  that  people  can  instruct  him,  but 
reserves  to  himself  the  work  of  synthesis.  And 
this  man  who  becomes  more  and  more  solitary 
also  becomes  more  and  more  a  man  of  the 
crowd.  He  thinks  with  the  crowd,  and  wishes 
to  become  master  of  its  thoughts.  To  say  the 
truth  his  one  great  strength  is  the  assent  of  the 
crowd  which  has  elected  him,  listens  to  his  mes 
sages  and  appeals,  and  which  helps  him  to  curb 
the  politicians  by  reason  of  the  fear  with  which 
it  inspires  them.  This  is  the  constant  occupa 
tion  of  his  thought.  His  speeches,  his  mes 
sages,  even  his  diplomatic  notes,  are  written 
— and  will  be  written — -not  for  the  crowd  but 
with  it  in  his  mind.  The  documents  are  always 
submitted  to  the  faithful  Tumulty,  his  private 
secretary.  "Tumulty  is  admirable,"  he  has 
said,  "for  guessing  the  effect  words  may  pro 
duce  from  the  platform."  If  the  President 
lives  alone,  if  he  keeps  the  doors  of  the  White 
House  closed,  the  reason  is  undoubtedly  to  be 
found  in  his  desire  that  the  people  may  not  sus 
pect  him  of  intimacy  with  the  leaders  of  finance, 
the  Magnates,  to  give  them  their  American 
name.  They  ask  for  interviews  in  vain.  The 


148  President  Wilson 

President  evades  or  refuses  their  requests. 
Clearly  he  does  not  wish  to  meet  them.  It  is 
a  principle  and  an  attitude,  which  he  clings  to 
with  an  increasing  vigour — sometimes  with 
harm  to  the  general  service.  He  interrupts 
his  friendships  of  the  everyday  world.  If  he 
plays  at  golf  he  goes  straight  to  the  greens 
without  passing  through  the  clubhouse.  His 
recreation  thus  becomes  solitary.  He  is  not 
less  distant  towards  the  politicians  who  wish 
to  approach  him.  They  insist,  but  obtain  noth 
ing.  One  of  them  has  written  a  humorous 
complaint : 

"I  have  seen  Tumulty.  I  have  tried  that 
half-a-dozen  times.  Nothing  doing.  Tu 
multy  promises,  but  nothing  happens.  Now 
you  see  I  have  got  to  go  back  home  for  several 
weeks.  All  the  folks  home  will  be  asking  me, 
'Well,  Abner,  how  does  the  President  talk  to 
you  about  this  German  business  when  he  sees 
you?'  So  far  I  have  bluffed  them.  But  if 
they  should  get  on  to  the  fact  that  I've  never 
seen  Wilson  to  speak  to  him  it  would  end  my 
chance  of  re-election."  * 

On  the  other  hand  the  President  is  extremely 
careful  not  to  lose  contact  with  the  press.  The 
press  is  able  to  manage  the  people.  He  de- 

*'The  Mystery  of  Woodrow  Wilson ,"  in  the  North  Ameri 
can  Review  for  September,  1917. 


The  Presidency:  Reforms  149 

sires,  as  much  as  possible,  to  manage  the  press. 
This  man,  who  receives  nobody,  devotes  a  spe 
cial  afternoon  every  week  to  a  journalistic  re 
ception.  They  talk  to  him  and  cross-question 
him  upon  the  last  diplomatic  difficulty  in  Mex 
ico,  the  tariff,  or  the  financial  problem.  Some 
times  he  evades  the  question.  "On  this  point 
my  mind  is  not  made  up.  It  is  open."  Or, 
with  a  picturesque  formula,  "my  mind  is  to 
let."  But  he  always  gives  an  answer,  and 
these  cleverly  calculated  replies  reach  the 
masses  through  those  journals  the  President 
has  made  the  echo  of  his  plans. 

Thus  he  went  from  reform  to  reform.  Tar 
iff  reduction  created  a  budget  deficit.  A  new 
tax  was  necessary,  and  federal  income  tax  was 
levied.  Incomes  of  less  than  $4,000  were  ex 
empt,  and  incomes  over  that  sum  were  taxed 
on  a  scale  beginning  with  a  minimum  of  one 
per  cent.  The  yield  of  this  tax  in  1913  being 
less  than  anticipated,  the  rates  were  increased 
in  1914. 

But  the  most  formidable  enterprise  in  which 
President  Wilson  succeeded  was  the  reform 
of  the  American  banking  system.  This  sys 
tem  was  detestable.  It  was,  however,  accept 
able  to  some  powerful  banks  which  had  become 
accustomed  to  its  defects,  and  were  troubled 


150  President  Wilson 

at  the  thought  of  a  reform  which  threatened 
to  be  far-reaching  and  also  to  limit  their  for 
mer  freedom.  In  effect  the  reform  did  so 
limit  them.  The  democratic  idea  was  over 
shadowed  by  the  power  possessed  by  these 
great  banks.  The  national  interest  agreed  ill 
with  institutions  sheltered  from  control,  and 
in  certain  events  capable — by  reason  of  the 
money  they  held — of  influencing  the  state  it 
self.  The  President  knew  how  to  combine  the 
democratic  idea  and  the  national  interest.  Sus 
tained  by  these  allied  forces,  he  resolved  to  re 
cast  the  entire  system. 

"The  structure  of  this  legislation  is  sim 
ple,"  wrote  Mr.  H.  J.  Ford.  "The  thousands 
of  national  banks  scattered  throughout  the 
country  like  so  many  separate  wells  were 
brought  together  into  one  system  in  which  they 
stand  as  local  conduits  from  a  national  reser 
voir.  The  country  was  divided  into  twelve 
districts,  in  each  of  which  is  a  federal  reserve 
bank,  with  which  the  member  banks  of  the  dis 
trict  keep  their  reserves  and  from  which  they 
can  obtain  supplies  of  currency  on  occasion  by 
rediscount  of  their  holdings  of  securities  and 
commercial  paper.  Each  reserve  bank  has  its 
own  board  of  directors,  nine  in  number,  six  of 
whom  are  to  be  chosen  by  the  member  banks 


The  Presidency-  Reforms  151 

upon  a  preferential  ballot  scheme,  and  three  are 
appointed  by  the  Federal  Reserve  Board,  which 
exercises  general  supervision  over  the  system. 
This  Board  is  composed  of  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  the  comptroller  of  the  currency,  and 
five  other  members  appointed  by  the  President, 
and  it  wields  such  extensive  powers  of  super 
vision,  direction  and  control  that  it  is  the  ad 
ministrative  centre  of  the  system.  There  is 
also  a  body  designated  the  Federated  Advis 
ory  Council,  chosen  by  the  banks  and  consist 
ing  of  as  many  members  as  there  are  federal 
reserve  districts.  The  powers  of  this  body  are 
purely  consultative,  but  its  existence  provides 
the  banks  with  an  organ  of  their  own  for  rep 
resentations  to  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  or 
for  concert  of  action  among  themselves  on  mat 
ters  of  common  interest.  The  federal  reserve" 
banks  have  general  banking  powers,  and  with 
the  consent  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  may 
establish  agencies  in  foreign  countries.  In 
deed  the  act  supplies  a  powerful  engine  for  es 
tablishing  the  United  States  as  a  centre  of  in 
ternational  banking." 

On  June  23,  1913,  whilst  the  Senate  was  dis 
cussing  the  Tariff  Bill  the  President  came  to 
the  House  and  spoke.  He  told  the  members 
that  he  would  keep  them  to  work  despite  the 


152  President  Wilson 


heat, 


that  considerations  of  personal  health 
must  yield  to  the  public  good,  and  that  it  was 
absolutely  imperative  to  give  the  country  a  new 
banking  system.  The  representatives  contin 
ued  their  duties  without  intermission.  On  Sep 
tember  9  they  passed  the  bill  which  the  Senate 
agreed  to  on  December  19.  Had  it  been  re 
jected  or  weakened  by  amendments  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  Staes  would  have  been 
without  much  of  that  power  which  to-day 
strengthens  it  for  the  conduct  of  the  war. 

On  January  20,  1914,  the  President  ad 
dressed  himself  once  again  to  Congress,  de 
manding  new  legislation  concerning  trusts. 
He  wished  to  define  and  to  increase  former  re 
strictions.  In  addition  he  asked  for  the  crea 
tion  of  a  commission  of  enquiry  and  justice 
with  sufficient  powers  to  unravel  the  ramifica 
tions  of  the  trusts  and  to  bring  them  to  judg 
ment.  A  similar  commission  had  already  been 
formed  to  watch  the  railway  companies.  The 
President  demanded  increased  powers  for  both. 
He  sought  to  put  into  action  one  formula  of 
his  electoral  campaign — to  see  clearly,  and  to 
obtain  justice. 

The  President  thus  carried  through  within  a 
single  year  three  considerable  reforms,  one 


The  Presidency:  Reforms  153 

dealing  with  tariff  reform,  a  second  with  the 
banking  system,  and  the  third  with  the  control 
of  trusts.  This  was  the  account  of  his  legis 
lative  work  when  war  broke  out. 


VII — President  Wilson  and  War 

PRESIDENT  WILSON  needed  peace 
to  complete  his  legislative  work.  He 
had  to  deal  with  war.  The  events  of 
August,  1914,  interrupted  his  reform 
ing  activity. 

What  exactly  have  been  President  Wilson's 
ideas  upon  the  subject  of  war?  Has  he  ever 
been,  according  to  the  belief  of  some  (and  a 
belief  not  without  reason),  a  pacifist?  A 
knowledge  of  his  career  does  not  by  any  means 
help  us  in  this  respect.  He  has  not  the  elo 
quence  and  military  tastes  of  a  Roosevelt.  But 
he  has  studied  history  too  well  not  to  recognise 
the  position  and  rights  of  war.  In  his  history 
of  the  American  people  he  had  judged  the  va 
rious  wars  in  which  the  United  States  had 
taken  part.  He  had  explained  them,  and  ap 
proved  of  them.  And  he  finished  at  last  in 
prophesying  a  new  America,  superabundant  in 
wealth  and  energy,  ready  to  burst  forth  and 
overflow  those  old  worlds  from  which  she  had 
sprung.  These  were  not  the  thoughts  of  a 
pacifist. 

But  man  proposes,  and  circumstances  dis- 
154 


President  Wilson  and  War          155 

pose.  The  surroundings  of  Mr.  Wilson  as 
candidate  and  president  had  perceptibly 
brought  him  into  touch  with  the  pacifists.  The 
famous  orator  Bryan  was  a  member  of  his 
party  and  a  colleague  and  Secretary  of  State 
in  his  cabinet.  He  was  obliged  to  make  use  of 
him.  As  an  adversary  and  rival  he  had  to 
meet  the  tumultuous  Roosevelt,  who  was  the 
partisan  of  a  resolutely  military  and  imperial 
istic  policy.  His  task  consisted  in  urging  the 
American  masses  towards  fresh  enthusiasms, 
in  fixing  their  attention  upon  domestic  reforms 
which  could  only  be  brought  to  fruition  in  times 
of  peace. 

From  the  moment  he  took  up  office  President 
Wilson  was  confronted  by  exterior  problems 
and  menaces  of  war.  They  multiplied  across 
the  whole  face  of  the  world.  He  exerted  him 
self  to  remove  them  from  his  path. with  his  cus 
tomary  firmness.  International  finance  was 
preparing  to  seize  the  goods  of  China,  and  that 
nation  was  in  urgent  need  of  150  millions.  She 
was  refused  the  sum  she  asked  for,  but  offered 
1,500  millions  in  exchange  for  close  control  and 
disastrous  guarantees.  China  was  about  to 
suffer  the  fate  of  Persia  and  Turkey.  Presi 
dent  Wilson  categorically  refused  to  support 
the  American  financiers,  and  in  fact  insisted 


156  President  Wilson 

that  they  should  leave  the  combination.  This 
was  his  first  step. 

The  administration  of  the  Panama  Canal, 
then  in  process  of  completion,  aroused  many 
complex  and  dangerous  difficulties.  The  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  were  easily  moved  by 
anything  affecting  this  great  enterprise.  The 
territory  crossed  by  the  canal  belonged  to  Co 
lombia.  Essentially  necessary  to  be  under  the 
control  of  the  United  States,  President  Roose 
velt  took  possession  of  it  in  the  most  ex 
peditious  manner.  Colombia  protested,  and, 
amongst  other  items,  demanded  an  indemnity 
of  ten  million  dollars.  The  South  American 
republics  interested  themselves  in  the  demand, 
and  followed  the  matter  with  an  uneasy  at 
tention.  President  Wilson  dealt  with  it  in  the 
fashion  of  a  great  lord.  He  ended  the  whole 
business  by  a  gift  of  25  millions.  As  for  the 
territory,  far  from  giving  it  back  he  enlarged 
it  by  a  slice  of  the  Republic  of  Nicaragua  which 
was  useful  for  the  security  and  good  adminis 
tration  of  the  canal.  He  acquired  a  roadstead 
and  its  rights.  He  did  not  allow  the  real  in 
terests  of  his  country  to  be  endangered. 

Another  very  delicate  question  had  been  un 
pleasantly  handed  to  him  by  his  predecessor 
Mr.  Taft.  Again  it  concerned  the  Panama 
Canal.  Great  Britain  had  discussed  the  sub- 


President  Wilson  and  War         157 

ject  of  the  canal  with  the  United  States,  and 
had  obtained  a  promise  (which  had  been  regu 
larised  by  the  Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty  of 
1901)  that  the  tolls  levied  should  apply  equally 
and  without  discrimination  to  the  shipping  of 
all  nations.  In  exchange  for  this  promise 
Great  Britain  professed  herself  disinterested  in 
the  construction  and  administration  of  the 
canal.  But  in  1912  Mr.  Taft  had  made,  or  al 
lowed,  a  law  to  pass  exempting  the  entire  coast 
ing  trade  of  the  United  States.  All  the  Eu 
ropean  powers,  in  concert  with  Great  Britain, 
protested.  Mr.  Taft  refused  to  budge.  Sir 
Edward  Grey  proposed  that  the  difference 
should  be  carried  to  arbitration.  The  Congress 
had  not  responded  and  nationalist  feelings 
were  agitated.  This  was  the  position  when 
President  Wilson  intervened.  Assuring  him 
self  that  the  British  demand  was  honest,  he 
acted  upon  that  ground.  He  went  to  Congress 
and  declared  that  in  his  view  "the  exemption 
of  coasting  trade  was  in  plain  contravention 
of  the  Treaty  of  1901.  .  .  .  We  are  too  big 
and  powerful  and  too  self-respecting  a  nation 
to  interpret  with  too  strained  or  refined  a  read 
ing  of  words  our  own  promises  just  because 
we  have  power  enough  to  give  us  leave  to  read 
them  as  we  please.  .  .  .  The  large  thing  to  do 
is  the  only  thing  we  can  do — voluntary  with- 


158  President  Wilson 

drawal  from  a  position  everywhere  questioned 
and  misunderstood."  He  finished  in  a  per 
sonal  and  mysterious  manner.  "If  the  law  is 
not  repealed  I  shall  not  know  how  to  deal  with 
other  matters  of  even  greater  delicacy  and 
nearer  consequence/'  These  last  words  cre 
ated  some  astonishment,  and  the  trend  of  the 
speech  made  an  impression.  The  litigious  law 
was  repealed,  but  not  without  discussion.  This 
singular  victory  was  gained  by  the  President 
alone  against  the  advice  of  both  republican 
and  democratic  leaders.  The  date  was  June, 
1914. 

The  words  which  had  excited  so  much  com 
ment  were  explained  by  a  further  difficulty. 
The  Mexican  problem  confronted  President 
Wilson  from  the  day  he  took  office,  and  it  re 
mains  still  unsettled.  Mexico  is  an  immense 
country  with  great  natural  wealth,  but  poor  in 
men  capable  to  use  it  to  advantage.  For  many 
miles  its  frontiers  run  with  those  of  the  United 
States.  Formerly  Austria  and  France  coveted 
it.  Perhaps  Japan  has  the  same  ambition  to 
day.  It  remains  a  prey,  a  temptation,  a 
trouble,  and  an  imminent  war  peril.  The 
United  States  have  great  interests  in  Mexico, 
possessing  or  controlling  the  larger  industries, 
the  railways,  and  the  mines.  In  1913  the  coun 
try  was  in  general  insurrection.  A  national- 


President  Wilson  and  War         159 

ist  party  had  overthrown  President  Diaz,  ac 
cused  of  having  over  favoured  the  concession 
hunters  and  capitalists  of  the  United  States. 
The  leaders  of  the  marauding  bands,  Huerta 
and  Villa,  quarrelled  over  the  government,  or, 
more  exactly,  the  pillage  of  the  country  and 
primarily  the  pillage  of  foreign  property. 
Considerable  American  interests  were  threat 
ened,  and  American  citizens  had  been  mur 
dered.  To  intervene  seemed  legitimate  and 
easy.  In  reality  the  question  was  not  so  sim 
ple,  for  it  was  intermingled  with  other  prob 
lems  of  extreme  importance.  Certainly  the 
United  States  were  big  enough  to  equip  an 
army  and  impose  it  on  Mexico.  But  behind 
Mexico,  first  republic  of  Latin  America,  were 
all  the  alarmed  and  vigilant  South  American 
republics.  And  when  President  Wilson  faced 
the  Mexican  problem  he  saw  in  front  of  him 
another  and  graver  problem — that  of  the  two 
Americas.  If  he  imposed  his  will  upon  Mex 
ico  he  would  have  to  do  the  same  to  the  whole 
of  Latin  America,  and  to  renounce  all  hopes  of 
economic  friendship  or  moral  predominance. 
This  would  introduce  into  the  New  World  all 
the  difficulties  of  the  Old,  rivalries,  alliances, 
diplomatic  ruptures,  wars.  The  popular  press 
and  the  financial  syndicates  urged  President 
Wilson  towards  intervention.  President  Taft, 


160  President  Wilson 

at  the  moment  of  giving  up  office,  appeared  to 
be  in  favour  of  recognising  the  presidency  of 
Huerta,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  factions,  and 
of  protecting  him  as  Russia  protected  the 
Shah  of  Persia  and  France  the  Sultan  of  Mo 
rocco. 

Without  delay  President  Wilson  marked  the 
change  in  his  policy.  He  refused  to  recognise 
President  Huerta,  a  brigand  and  assassin,  de 
claring  him  unfit  to  govern  an  American  state. 
But  he  said  that  he  was  prepared  to  recognise 
a  president  elected  by  constitutional  methods. 
These  friendly  suggestions  were  not  accepted, 
and  the  Mexican  bands  continued  to  kill  their 
enemies  and  their  associates.  President  Wil 
son  followed  the  course  of  a  waiting  policy. 

"We  are  happy  to  call  ourselves  the  friends 
of  Mexico,"  he  said  in  his  message  of  August 
27,  1913.  "It  was  our  duty  to  offer  our  good 
offices  for  the  establishment  of  a  condition  of 
things  until  a  legal  authority  was  restored  in 
this  country.  .  .  .  We  have  not  succeeded. 
.  .  .  By  reason  of  its  proximity  to  Mexico,  the 
United  States  could  not  remain  inactive.  .  .  . 
It  is  now  our  duty  to  show  what  true  neutral 
ity  will  do  to  enable  the  people  of  Mexico  to 
set  their  affairs  in  order  again  and  wait  for  a 
further  opportunity  to  offer  our  friendly  coun 
sels.  .  .  .  The  pressure  of  moral  force  would 


President  Wilson  and  War         161 

sooner  or  later  break  down  the  barrier  raised 
against  us  by  the  pride  and  prejudice  of  our 
neighbours.  We  would  intervene  rather  as 
the  friends  of  Mexico  than  as  her  enemies." 

He  warned  his  fellow  citizens  of  the  dan 
gers  they  ran  in  remaining  within  the  districts 
threatened  by  civil  war,  and  also  of  the  risks 
they  undertook.  He  appeared  to  repudiate  the 
imperialistic  doctrine,  Roman  and  British, 
which  authorises  a  state  to  follow  its  subjects 
into  any  place  and  to  declare  war  in  order  to 
defend  their  private  interests. 
*  The  President  had  much  to  tolerate  and 
many  to  conciliate.  The  more  he  endeavoured 
to  escape  this  war  the  more  it  threatened  him. 
Indifferent  to  his  exhortations,  Mexico  con 
tinued  its  rule  of  brigandage,  robbery,  and  as 
sassination.  In  April,  1914,  some  American 
marines  who  had  landed  at  Tampico  for  petrol 
were  arrested  by  a  Huertist  colonel.  The  na 
tion  was  attacked  and  insulted.  Action  was 
necessary.  President  Wilson  moved  with  a 
rapidity  and  a  vigour  which  proved  that  the 
temperament  of  a  preaching  friar  was  not  the 
only  foundation  of  his  nature.  He  asked  for 
full  powers  from  Congress.  They  were  im 
mediately  given.  The  President  judged  this 
sufficient,  and,  without  waiting  for  the  Senate 
to  ratify  the  vote  of  the  Lower  House,  he 


162  President  Wilson 

landed  troops  at  Vera  Cruz.  The  Senate  pro 
tested.  President  Wilson  explained  that  the 
occupation  of  Vera  Cruz  was  not  an  act  of  war, 
but  an  act  of  preparation  for  war  rendered  in 
dispensable  through  circumstance.  .  .  .  For 
several  days  the  matter  was  discussed. 

Was  this  war  ?  Those  who  believed  so  were 
deceived.  Once  more  President  Wilson  was 
able  to  avoid  it.  Argentina,  Brazil,  and  Chili 
("the  A.  B.  C.  Powers"  as  they  are  called  in 
the  New  World)  proposed  mediation.  The 
President  admitted  the  proposal  at  once,  and 
warmly  thanked  the  young  South  American 
powers.  Nothing  could  disturb  his  views  more 
than  the  peril  of  a  disagreement  with  them; 
nothing  would  satisfy  him  more  than  frank 
collaboration  and  an  attempt  at  arbitration. 
The  mediation  was  negotiated  on  Canadian  soil 
at  Niagara  Falls.  It  produced  no  certain  ef 
fect,  but  time  had  been  gained,  and  calm  had 
been  reached.  In  July,  Huerta,  having  been 
discredited,  retired  to  Europe.  If  not  peace 
the  result  was  pacification,  and  an  effective 
manifestation  of  Pan-American  solidarity — in 
any  case  a  gain.  President  Wilson  was  in 
sulted  by  his  political  opponents.  He  paid  no 
attention  to  their  outrages  and  followed  his 
own  path.  He  considered,  and  undoubtedly 
not  without  reason,  that  the  Republic  of  the 


President  Wilson  and  War         163 

United  States  possessed  enough  real  strength 
to  be  condescending  without  detriment  to  its 
prestige. 

During  the  disembarkment  at  Vera  Cruz 
some  sailors  had  been  killed.  On  May  22, 
1914,  President  Wilson  pronounced  a  funeral 
eulogy  over  their  bodies. 

"We  have  gone  down  to  Mexico  to  serve 
mankind  if  we  can  find  a  way.  We  do  not  want 
to  fight  the  Mexicans;  we  want  to  serve  them 
if  we  can.  A  war  of  aggression  is  not  a  war  in 
which  it  is  a  proud  thing  to  die,  but  a  war  of 
service  is  one  in  which  it  is  grand  thing  to  die." 

Having  spoken  of  the  dead,  he  had  a  word 
to  say  for  those  who  had  insulted  him: 

"I  never  was  under  fire,  but  I  fancy  there 
are  some  things  just  as  hard  to  do  as  to  go 
under  fire.  I  fancy  it  is  just  as  hard  to  do 
your  duty  when  men  are  sneering  at  you  as 
when  they  are  shooting  at  you.  When  they 
shoot  at  you  they  can  only  take  your  natural 
life.  When  they  sneer  at  you  they  can  wound 
your  heart.  The  cheers  of  the  moment  are 
not  what  a  man  ought  to  think  about,  but  the 
verdict  of  his  conscience  and  the  conscience  of 
mankind." 

It  may  be  thought  that  a  funeral  address  is 
not  the  best  means  of  upholding  oneself,  or  of 
entering  into  comparison  with  the  heroes  whose 


164  President  Wilson 

memories  are  being  exalted.  But  let  that  pass. 
We  are  now  in  May,  1914,  at  the  moment  when 
one  history  is  ending  and  another  beginning. 
Let  us  add  the  fact  that  President  Wilson  had 
concluded  treaties  of  arbitration  with  Great 
Britain,  France,  Russia,  Italy,  Spain,  the  three 
Scandinavian  states,  China,  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  Latin  republics  of  South  America. 
This  shows  how  really  pacific  his  policy  was,  a 
more  effectively  peaceful  policy  than  any  chief 
of  a  state  had  ever  yet  followed.  Working 
during  a  very  difficult  period,  President  Wilson 
had  been  able  to  elude  and  to  send  to  sleep  the 
demon  of  war. 

Europe  was  struck  by  a  thunderbolt.  The 
first  blow  was  in  its  suddenness  and  violence  a 
worthy  portent  of  the  catastrophe.  The  peo 
ples  of  Europe  were  surprised.  Can  we  be  as 
tonished  if  it  surprised  the  people  of  the  New 
World?  They  learned  at  the  same  time  of  the 
menace  of  war,  and  of  war  itself.  They  could 
not  believe  in  such  a  thing,  and  were  still  await 
ing  negotiations  when  millions  of  men  were 
already  in  arms  and  at  blows.  Their  first 
feeling  was  one  of  stupor.  A  whole  world, 
the  Old  World,  the  womb  of  thought  and  of 
the  arts,  was  streaming  in  blood  before  them. 
The  various  parts  did  not  take  shape  at  first. 


President  Wilson  and  War         165 

Despondency,  distress,  mourning  mingled  with 
the  destruction  of  all  hope. 

We  must  return  to  the  man  who  is  the  sub 
ject  of  our  study,  and  who  really  occupies  the 
centre  of  the  whole  history — President  Wilson. 
Even  in  his  domestic  life  the  moment  was  full 
of  bitterness.  His  wife  was  dying,  and  by 
her  bedside  he  received  and  despatched  decisive 
telegrams.  War  had  broken  out.  Belgium 
was  invaded.  What  was  he  going  to  do  ?  His 
responsibility  was  immense.  The  laws  had 
made  it  heavy,  and  tradition  had  increased  the 
load.  He  himself  had  deliberately  made  it 
greater  still,  in  proclaiming  himself  the 
"leader"  of  his  people,  their  director  and  their 
chief. 

What  was  he  going  to  do?  No  one  foresaw 
intervention.  How  could  the  unarmed  United 
States  intervene  in  a  distant  war  which  accord 
ing  to  all  judgment  would  be  of  short  dura 
tion?  Protestation  against  the  violation  of 
Belgian  neutrality  was  deemed  vain  even  by 
the  most  ardent.  What  was  the  good  of  pro 
testing  if  one  was  not  able  to  act?  President 
Wilson  must  be  defended  against  the  sharp  re 
proaches  levelled  at  him  later  on  by  Mr.  Root 
and  Mr.  Roosevelt.  Mr.  Roosevelt's  words 
during  the  first  weeks  of  the  war  are  well 
known.  They  express  exactly  the  anxiety  and 


166  President  Wilson 

prudence  that  every  neutral  felt.  He  declared 
that  he  would  support  obediently  the  Presi 
dent's  policy.  "I  am  sure  that  I  express  your 
views  in  saying  that  we  must  first  act  as  Amer 
icans,  and  that  we  must  support  every  public 
man  who  endeavours  with  all  his  force  to  keep 
America  free  from  this  wrar."* 

And  with  reference  to  Belgium  the  ex-Presi 
dent  wrote:  "Sympathy  is  compatible  with 
full  acknowledgment  of  the  unwisdom  of  our 
uttering  a  single  word  of  official  protest  un 
less  we  are  prepared  to  make  that  protest  effec 
tive  ;  and  only  the  clearest  and  most  urgent  na 
tional  duty  would  ever  justify  us  in  deviating 
from  our  rule  of  neutrality  and  non-inter 
vention."  t 

The  first  decisions  were  then  relatively  sim 
ple.  On  August  4  President  Wilson  issued  a 
declaration  of  neutrality.  On  the  5th  he  in 
formed  the  belligerents  that  from  that  day  un 
til  the  end  of  the  war  he  was  at  their  service 
as  a  mediator.  On  the  6th  he  informed  all  the 
Powers  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  would  watch  and  maintain  the  maritime 
rights  of  neutrals. 

There  were  three  essential  steps,  but  they 
ended  no  difficulties.  As  a  historian  President 

*Outlook,  August  15,  1914. 
t  Ibid.,  September  23,  1914. 


President  Wilson  and  War         167 

Wilson  was  able  to  remember  how  the  United 
States  had  been  dragged  into  the  Napoleonic 
wars.  The  vigorous  blockade  then  exercised 
by  England  on  the  high  seas  had  ended  in 
complications  and  war.  However,  in  that  time 
the  United  States  had  been  a  feeble  power, 
far  away  and  separated  from  the  Old  World. 
Could  the  new  United  States,  so  powerful  and 
with  so  many  interests,  preserve  its  peace? 
And,  if  they  had  to  fight,  which  should  be  the 
enemy — Germany  or  England?  How  could 
one  guess  what  would  take  place  on  the  high 
seas?  There  England  was  all  powerful,  and 
perhaps  against  her  the  United  States  would 
come  into  conflict.  Both  alternatives  had  to 
be  kept  in  mind,  and  either  was  redoubtable. 
President  Wils'on  felt  that  the  factions  forming 
in  the  United  States  itself  were  gathering 
force.  Men  of  German  birth  or  origin  were 
deeply  moved  by  the  peril  of  the  distant  father 
land.  Those  who  were  British,  and  this  in 
cluded  the  entire  American  society  of  the  At 
lantic  States,  stood  for  France,  invaded  Bel 
gium,  and  Great  Britain.  Thus  the  single 
outbreak  of  this  distant  war  gravely  threat 
ened  to  split  the  unity  of  the  young  Union.  No 
one  was  better  able  than  President  Wilson  to 
measure  this  immense  danger.  The  spectator 
who  dares  to  disregard  his  anxiety  and  re- 


168  President  Wilson 

proach  his  prudence  must  be  rash  indeed. 
President  Wilson  knew  his  motley  people,  a 
mixture  of  all  the  races  of  Europe — Slav,  Ital 
ian,  German,  Jew,  Polish,  Irish,  English.  He 
knew  that  this  people,  which  had  grown  to 
gether  so  confusedly,  remained  after  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty  years  the  ill  formed  sketch  of 
a  true  race.  President  Wilson  understood 
these  things  to  the  very  bottom,  and  was  able 
to  gauge  the  imminence  of  a  double  danger,  a 
foreign  war  at  the  same  time  as  a  civil  war. 
How  could  he  fail  to  feel  it?  The  seeds  of 
civil  war  were  to  be  found  in  his  own  person. 
He  was  wholly  English  by  blood,  almost  en 
tirely  English  by  education.  He  loved  Eng 
land,  and  from  the  beginning  of  the  conflict 
his  sympathies  were  given  without  hesitation. 
They  were  passionate  and  instinctive  as  well 
as  reflective.  He  had  then  to  place  them  un 
der  vigorous  discipline,  and  to  give  an  exam 
ple  of  the  strictest  and  purest  Americanism. 
From  civil  war,  which  would  be  mortal,  he 
wished  at  first  to  turn  and  preserve  his  peo 
ple.  Speaking  directly  and  paternally,  on 
August  18,  1914,  he  issued  his  first  appeal  to 
the  American  people. 

"The  effect  of  the  war  upon  the  United 
States  will  depend  upon  what  American  citi 
zens  say  or  do.  Every  man  who  really  loves 


President  Wilson  and  War         169 

America  will  act  and  speak  in  the  true  spirit  of 
neutrality,  which  is  the  spirit  of  impartiality 
and  fairness  and  friendliness  to  all  concerned. 
The  spirit  of  the  nation  in  this  critical  mat 
ter  will  be  determined  largely  by  what  indi 
viduals  and  society  and  those  gathered  in  pub 
lic  meetings  do  and  say,  upon  what  newspapers 
and  magazines  contain,  upon  what  our  minis 
ters  utter  in  their  pulpits  and  men  proclaim  as 
their  opinions  on  the  streets. 

"The  people  of  the  United  States  are  drawn 
from  many  nations,  and  chiefly  from  the  na 
tions  now  at  war.  It  is  natural  and  inevitable 
that  there  should  be  the  utmost  variety  of  sym 
pathy  and  desire  among  them  with  regard  to 
the  issues  and  circumstances  of  the  conflict. 
Some  will  wish  one  nation,  others  another  to 
succeed  in  the  momentous  struggle.  It  will  be 
easy  to  excite  passion  and  difficult  to  allay  it. 
Those  responsible  for  exciting  it  will  assume  a 
heavy  responsibility;  responsibility  for  no  less 
a  thing  than  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  whose  love  of  their  country  and  whose 
loyalty  to  its  Government  should  unite  them  as 
Americans  all,  bound  in  honour  and  affection 
to  think  first  of  her  and  her  interests,  may  be 
divided  into  camps  of  hostile  opinions  hot 
against  each  other,  involved  in  the  war  itself 
in  impulse  and  opinion,  if  not  in  action.  Such 


170  President  Wilson 

divisions  among  us  would  be  fatal  to  our  peace 
of  mind  and  might  seriously  stand  in  the  way 
of  proper  performance  of  our  duty  as  one  great 
nation  at  peace,  the  one  people  holding  itself 
ready  to  play  a  part  of  impartial  mediation  and 
speak  the  counsels  of  peace  and  accommoda 
tion,  not  as  a  partisan  but  as  a  friend." 

Peace!  During  those  early  weeks  an  idea 
formed  itself  in  the  American  mind  that  the 
mission  of  the  American  nation  was  to  give  all 
others  an  example  of  peace,  and  to  end  the  war 
by  imposing  upon  the  whole  world  a  peaceful 
tradition  which  belonged  to  itself  alone.  It 
was  an  idea,  a  belief.  But  ideas  and  beliefs 
are  forces  that  President  Wilson  knows  how 
to  appreciate  and  direct.  He  took  up  this 
idea.  Other  leaders  who  wished  to  assure  the 
unity  of  their  people  have  invoked  blood  and 
race.  President  Wilson  was  not  able  to  do 
this.  In  the  Republic  of  the  United  States  the 
racial  spirit  divides  rather  than  unites.  A  ma 
terial  bond  lacking,  it  was  necessary  to  seek  for 
and  strengthen  a  spiritual  lien.  President 
Wilson  made  this  effort,  and  his  words  became 
more  solemn  and  religious. 

"I  venture,  therefore,  my  fellow-country 
men,  to  speak  a  solemn  word  of  warning  to 
you  against  that  deepest,  most  subtle,  most  es 
sential  breach  of  neutrality  which  may  spring 


President  Wilson  and  War         171 

out  of  partisanship,  out  of  passionately  taking 
sides.  The  United  States  must  be  neutral  in 
fact  as  well  as  in  name  during  these  days  that 
are  to  try  men's  souls.  We  must  be  impartial 
in  thought  as  well  as  in  action,  must  put  a  curb 
upon  our  sentiments  as  well  as  upon  every 
transaction  that  might  be  construed  as  a  pref 
erence  of  one  party  to  the  struggle  before  an 
other." 

He  himself  gave  the  example  of  the  virtues 
he  counselled.  All  the  belligerents  turned  to 
him  with  their  objurgations.  The  Emperor 
William  telegraphed  that  the  French  did  not 
observe  the  laws  of  war.  President  Poincare 
telegraphed  that  the  Germans  did  not  observe 
the  laws  of  war.  King  Albert  protested 
against  the  violation  of  Belgium's  rights.  To 
all  appeals  the  President  made  the  same  re 
ply. 

"Presently,  I  pray  God  very  soon,  this  war 
will  be  over.  The  day  of  accounting  will  then 
come,  when  I  take  it  for  granted  the  nations 
of  Europe  will  assemble  to  determine  a  settle 
ment.  Where  WTongs  have  been  committed, 
their  consequences  and  the  relative  responsi 
bility  involved  will  be  assessed. 

"The  nations  of  the  world  have  fortunately 
by  agreement  made  a  plan  for  such  a  reckon 
ing  and  settlement.  What  such  a  plan  cannot 


172  President  Wilson 

compass,  the  opinion  of  mankind,  the  final  ar 
biter  in  all  such  matters,  will  supply.  It  would 
be  unwise,  it  would  be  premature,  for  a  single 
government,  however  fortunately  separated 
from  the  present  struggle,  it  would  even  be  in 
consistent  with  the  neutral  position  of  any  na 
tion  which,  like  this,  has  no  part  in  the  con 
test,  to  form  or  express  a  final  judgment." 

How  vague  it  seems,  and  how  chimerical! 
However  one  clear  trait  can  be  discerned,  a 
note  that  persists  in  all  the  following  declara 
tions.  President  Wilson  would  not  admit  that 
the  war  could  end  in  military  downfall  and  the 
destruction  of  one  of  the  opposed  parties.  He 
held  for  certain  that  a  congress  of  states  would 
settle  the  terms  of  agreement.  His  phraseol 
ogy  astonishes.  It  is  pompous  and  mystical, 
differing  strangely  from  the  ordinary  language 
of  the  chancelleries.  But,  in  truth,  President 
Wilson  is  not  a  diplomatist.  He  is  the  head 
of  a  popular  state,  and  elected  by  the  crowd. 
When  he  replies  to  the  European  governments 
his  words  must  be  so  put  together  that — im 
printed  in  the  American  newspapers — they  are 
easily -and  usefully  understood.  President 
Wilson  is  always  a  publicist  whilst  being  at 
the  same  time  a  leader.  He  never  ceases  to 
speak  to  the  masses  for  whom  he  decides. 

He  now  spoke  to  them  with  a  direct  solem- 


President  Wilson  and  War         173 

nity  he  has  not  surpassed.  He  decreed  that 
October  4  should  be  a  day  of  prayer  for  the  Re 
public  of  the  United  States.  He  brought  to 
gether  and  taught  his  people  with  pastoral  au 
thority.  This  singular  text,  judicial  and  re 
ligious,  must  be  quoted  with  exactness: 

WHEREAS  great  nations  of  the  world  have  taken  up 
arms  against  one  another  and  war  now  draws  millions 
of  men  into  battle  whom  the  counsel  of  statesmen  have 
not  been  able  to  save  from  the  terrible  sacrifice ; 

AND  WHEREAS  in  this  as  in  all  things  it  is  our  privi 
lege  and  duty  to  seek  counsel  and  succour  of  Almighty 
God,  humbling  ourselves  before  Him,  confessing  our 
weakness  and  our  lack  of  any  wisdom  equal  to  these 
things ; 

AND  WHEREAS  it  is  the  especial  wish  and  longing  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  prayer  and  counsel 
and  all  friendliness,  to  serve  the  cause  of  peace ; 

WHEREFORE,  I,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  do  designate  Sunday,  the 
fourth  day  of  October  next,  a  day  of  prayer  and  sup 
plication  and  do  request  all  God-fearing  persons  to 
repair  on  that  day  to  their  places  of  worship  there  to 
unite  their  petitions  to  Almighty  God  that,  overruling 
the  counsel  of  men,  setting  straight  the  things  they 
cannot  govern  or  alter,  taking  pity  on  the  nations  now 
in  the  throes  of  conflict,  in  His  mercy  and  goodness 
showing  a  way  where  men  can  see  none,  He  vouch 
safe  His  children  healing  peace  again  and  restore  once 
more  that  concord  among  men  and  nations  without 
which  there  can  be  neither  happiness  nor  true  friend 
ship  nor  any  wholesome  fruit  of  toil  or  thought  in 
the  world;  praying  also  to  this  end  that  he  forgive  us 
our  sins,  our  ignorance  of  His  holy  will,  our  wilful- 
ness  and  many  errors,  and  lead  us  in  the  paths  of 


174  President  Wilson 

obedience  to  places  of  vision  and  to  thoughts  and 
counsels  that  purge  and  make  wise. 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and 
caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington  this  eighth  day  of 
September  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  nine 
hundred  and  fourteen  and  of  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  of  America  the  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
ninth. 

(Seal)  WOODROW  WILSON. 

By  the  President: 

William  Jennings  Bryan, 

Secretary  of  State. 

We  believe  this  to  be  one  of  the  finest  pages 
President  Wilson  has  written.  Certainly  po 
litical  intentions  were  not  wholly  absent  from 
its  composition.  But  its  thoughts  are  so  full 
of  grandeur,  it  breathes  such  an  accent  of  truth 
and  emotion,  that  in  reading  it  we  forget  the 
political  surroundings  and  wish  to  believe  that 
the  President  himself  forgot  them  when  writ 
ing  this  document.  He  spoke.  And  with  the 
voice  of  the  Chief  of  the  State  we  hear  the  voice 
of  the  man,  the  humble  Woodrow  Wilson,  who 
had  been  hardly  tried  during  those  forty  days, 
not  only  in  his  private  life  by  the  loss  of  the 
companion  of  his  youth,  but  also  in  his  public 
life  by  receiving  on  his  shoulders  the  heaviest 
weight  a  mortal  has  ever  carried.  "But  God 
reveals  a  path  where  men  see  none !"  This  is 
truly  a  cry  of  anguish.  Imagine  him  on  this 


President  Wilson  and  War         175 

day  of  October  4,  praying  in  company  with  his 
people,  bowing  down  in  the  Calvinistic  temple, 
his  place  of  worship.  He  sees  before  him 
darkness  and  danger.  He  collects  together 
his  strength,  his  guiding  principles  of  pru 
dence,  peace,  order,  and  clearness  of  soul.  He 
asks  the  same  effort  of  his  people — passions 
kept  in  silence,  deeds  restrained  by  discipline. 

In  September,  the  Marne.  After  this  vic 
tory  there  appeared  to  have  been  an  attempt 
at  negotiation  in  which  President  Wilson  was 
concerned.  Was  Germany  beginning  to  recog 
nise,  without  prolonging  the  massacre,  the  fu 
tility  of  her  enterprise?  The  authoritative 
biography  of  the  President  by  Mr.  Henry  Jones 
Ford  is  affirmative  upon  this  obscure  historical 
point.  "After  the  Battle  of  the  Marne  some 
intimations  reached  him  of  sufficient  substance 
to  encourage  another  effort  and  the  German 
Government  was  approached  on  the  subject 
through  Ambassador  Gerard  at  Berlin.  The 
Imperial  Chancellor  replied  that  as  Germany's 
enemies  had  agreed  to  make  peace  only  by  joint 
action,  the  United  States  should  obtain  pro 
posals  of  peace  from  the  Allies,  which  must  be 
such  as  to  guarantee  Germany  against  future 
attacks."  There  was  nothing  to  be  done.  The 


176  President  Wilson 

President  allowed  the  negotiation  to  fall  to  the 
ground. 

October,  November,  December,  1914;  fight 
ing  in  Flanders,  fighting  in  Poland.  People 
were  beginning  to  realise  that  this  war  would 
be  horrible  in  its  length  as  well  as  in  its  vio 
lence.  The  Americans  were  always  far  from 
foreseeing  or  imagining  their  intervention. 
What  should  they  do?  "Let  us  work  and 
give/'  replied  and  advised  one  of  their  best  re 
views,  the  Outlook,  of  December  2.  "Thank 
God,  the  blessing  of  giving  has  been  left  to  us 
Americans."  The  Americans  worked  and 
gave.  They  prepared  convoys  of  food,  arms, 
metals.  They  organised  assistance  for  the 
wounded  in  northern  France  and  Belgium,  of 
which  we  shall  know  later  the  fabulous  cost. 
They  became  passionately  engrossed  in  their 
charitable  works.  They  set  up  for  their  coun 
try  a  mission.  Alone  they  were  to  continue 
and  to  safeguard  the  virtues  of  peace,  thus 
laying  the  foundation  for  humanity's  future, 
and  becoming  its  arbiter  by  their  wisdom,  its 
guardian  by  their  strength. 

President  Wilson  had  stood  aside  from  pub 
lic  view  owing  to  his  recent  mourning,  the 
trial  of  circumstances,  and  his  inborn  taste  for 
solitude  whilst  engaged  upon  the  problems  of 
his  office.  In  every  respect  he  favoured  these 


President  Wilson  and  War         177 

moral  occupations  which  calmed  and  employed 
the  American  people.  He  continued  to  give  an 
example  of  pacifism.  The  Mexican  question 
was  still  dangerous,  the  American  troops 
still  in  occupation  at  Vera  Cruz.  The  Presi 
dent  made  up  his  mind  not  to  be  distracted 
from  the  European  menace  by  such  secondary 
conflicts.  He  could  not  better  gain  time  than 
in  arranging  this  matter.  Entering  into  ne 
gotiations  with  General  Carranza,  the  most  re 
spectable  of  the  Mexican  leaders,  he  wished  to 
withdraw  his  troops  on  September  16,  the  an 
niversary  day  of  Mexican  independence.  This 
clever  courtesy  agreed  with  the  spirit  of  his 
policy.  He  was  not  able  to  carry  his  wish  into 
effect  as  the  negotiations  were  still  unfinished. 
However,  on  November  23,  notwithstanding 
critics  and  censors,  he  evacuated  Vera  Cruz. 
The  imperialistic  party  were  against  his  action, 
and  its  opposition  obliged  him  to  seek  the  sup 
port  of  the  pacifist  elements.  Addressing  him 
self  to  this  particular  public,  he  declared  him 
self  their  friend.  On  October  25  he  spoke  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  As 
sociation  : 

"Your  role  is  to  fight,  not  with  canon,  but 
according  to  the  law.  We  have  recently  con 
cluded  with  a  great  number  of  powers  treaties 
of  arbitration  which  forbid  us  to  break  off  any 


178  President  Wilson 

negotiation  without  having  allowed  a  clear  year 
to  elapse  from  the  date  of  the  arbitration  or 
enquiry.  My  prediction  is  that  a  light  will  il 
luminate  the  difficulties,  and  that  after  a  year 
there  will  be  no  reason  to  fight." 

He  was  now  well  engaged  in  a  pacifist  cam 
paign,  and  about  to  go  so  far  that  his  acts 
would  bind  him.  Undoubtedly  his  considera 
tions  were  political.  The  legislative  elections 
were  fixed  for  December,  1914,  and  the  Presi 
dent  had  an  extreme  need  to  preserve  his  demo 
cratic  majority.  To  discourage  the  pacifists, 
to  separate  himself  from  them,  could  only  spell 
defeat.  This  had  to  be  kept  in  mind,  and  he 
acted  in  consequence.  He  did  not  forget  the 
example  of  Cleveland's  presidency.  Cleveland 
was  also  a  Democrat.  And  Cleveland  had 
ruined  himself  by  coming  into  collision  with 
the  democratic  elements  of  his  own  party. 
Like  Cleveland  President  Wilson  had  the  firm 
resolve  to  govern  with  authority,  but  he  was 
quite  decided  not  to  be  broken  in  the  same  way. 

A  strong  section  of  American  opinion  in 
sisted  upon  an  increase  of  army  and  navy. 
President  Wilson  was  not  in  favour  of  such 
measures.  In  the  message  of  November  10  he 
declared  himself  in  favour  of  "the  small  navy 
bill"  put  forward  by  his  cabinet.  In  Decem- 


President  Wilson  and  War         179 

her,  1914,  in  an  address  to  Congress,  he  raised 
his  voice  against  schemes  of  army  reform. 
"We  will  not  turn  America  into  a  camp/'  he 
said.  "We  will  not  ask  our  young  men  to 
spend  the  best  years  of  their  lives  in  learning 
soldiering."  A  certain  league  for  the  limita 
tion  of  armaments  supported  his  policy.  He 
thanked  it  in  a  public  reply.  A  man  charged 
with  such  high  responsibilities  can  only  be  crit 
icised  with  much  prudence.  But  it  must  be  said 
that  President  Wilson  went  too  far.  We  are 
able  to  say  it  more  freely  because  he  himself 
was  soon  to  regret  the  fact,  and  disavowed 
these  words.  They  were  unfortunate  because 
they  were  so  unsuitable  to  prepare  the  people 
of  the  United  States  for  an  eventuality  rap 
idly  approaching. 

What  were  President  Wilson's  thoughts  at 
this  moment  of  his  presidency?  What  were 
his  intentions  ?  Did  he  intend  to  avoid  war  at 
any  price?  He  was  suspected  and  accused. 
Mr.  Roosevelt  commenced  a  campaign  in  fa 
vour  of  war.  Mr.  Morton  Fullerton  de 
nounced  Germany  which  coveted  and  threat 
ened  the  two  Americas.  The  President  did 
not  change  his  position.  On  February  6, 
I9IS»  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  Allies  in  Eu 
rope  and  the  pro-Allies  in  America,  he  tele 
graphed  birthday  greetings  to  the  Emperor 


180  President  Wilson 

William.  Had  he  then  elected — as  people 
dared  to  write — in  favour  of  the  path  of  cow 
ardice?  No  indeed,  as  events  soon  proved. 
He  was  cautiously  waiting.  He  desired  peace, 
not  only  because  he  had  a  horror  of  war,  but 
also  because  it  was  necessary  for  the  success 
of  his  reforms  and  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
unity  and  liberal  ideas  of  his  nation.  He  pas 
sionately  wished  for  peace  with  an  anguish 
which  overcame  a  will  until  then  quite  firm. 
And  he  allied  himself  closely,  too  closely,  with 
those  pacifists  who  alone  were  able  to  help  him 
along  a  difficult  road.  He  ceased  to  restrain 
his  natural  fire,  and  spoke  as  an  apostle. 

"What  a  future  is  before  us,  my  friends! 
The  whole  world  is  troubled.  America  is 
alone  at  peace.  Of  all  the  great  powers  of 
the  world  America  is  the  only  one  to  employ 
its  power  for  the  good  of  the  people.  Amer 
ica  is  the  only  one  to  use  its  great  character, 
its  great  force,  in  the  service  of  peace  and 
prosperity.  Does  it  not  seem  probable  that  one 
day  the  world  will  turn  towards  America  and 
say,  'You  were  right,  we  were  wrong.  We 
lost  our  heads,  you  kept  yours'  ?" 

This  is  not  the  language  of  a  statesman,  but 
of  an  enthusiast.  We  must  never  forget, 
however,  that  the  Presidency  of  the  Republic 


President  Wilson  and  War         181 

of  the  United  States  is  an  office  which  makes 
its  occupant  partly  a  popular  magistrate,  partly 
a  dictator.  To  hold  the  office  well  a  man  must 
be  both  one  and  the  other,  an  ardent  orator,  a 
cold  and  resolute  administrator.  The  tribune 
shines  on  the  platform,  the  dictator  in  action. 
The  office  is  difficult,  and,  if  President  Wilson 
is  himself  hard  to  understand,  it  is  because  he 
comprehends  very  well  the  nature  of  his 
duties.  Sometimes  passionate  oratory  over 
whelms  him,  as  in  the  present  case.  But  the 
dictator  does  not  sleep.  President  Wilson 
never  fails — as  even  his  opponents  recognise 
— to  take  at  the  necessary  moment  any  essen 
tial  decisions  which  will  determine  the  future. 


VIII— Towards  War:  Deeds 


ONE  of  these  moments  now  presented 
itself.  At  the  beginning  of  1915 
American  diplomacy  was  in  an 
awkward  situation.  Continuous 
acts,  sometimes  on  the  part  of  England,  some 
times  on  that  of  Germany,  infringed  the  regu 
lations  of  international  law.  Germany  placed 
all  her  food  supplies  under  government  con 
trol.  England  irtstantly  declared  that  such 
food  supplies  ceased  to  be  a  matter  of  private 
concern  and  became  of  public  significance. 
Ships  carrying  cargoes  of  like  nature  would  be 
conducted  for  examination  and  seizure  into 
British  ports.  This  was  the  first  blow  directed 
against  international  law.  But  the  German 
counter-attack  was  graver  still.  In  February, 
1915,  Berlin  announced  that  England  was 
blockaded,  and  that  consequently  the  maritime 
zone  encompassing  her  became  a  "war  zone." 
If  neutrals  ventured  into  this  area  they  must 
run  the  risks  of  their  acts.  The  British  de 
cision  threatened  commercial  interests,  but  the 
German  decree  threatened  life  itself.  The  dou 
ble  reply  of  President  Wilson  marked  how 

182 


Towards  War:  Deeds  183 

clearly  he  realised  the  difference.  He  negoti 
ated  with  Great  Britain.  The  Note  addressed 
to  Berlin  was  an  immediate  summons. 

"If  the  commanders  of  German  vessels  of 
war  should  act  on  the  presumption  that  the  flag 
of  the  United  States  was  not  being  used  in  good 
faith  and  should  destroy  on  the  high  seas  an 
American  vessel  or  the  lives  of  American  citi 
zens,  it  would  be  difficult  for  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  to  view  the  act  in  any 
other  light  than  as  an  indefensible  violation  of 
neutral  rights,  which  it  would  be  very  hard 
indeed  to  reconcile  with  the  friendly  relations 
now  so  happily  subsisting  between  the  two 
Governments. 

"If  such  a  deplorable  situation  should  arise, 
the  Imperial  German  Government  can  readily 
appreciate  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  would  be  constrained  to  hold  the  Im 
perial  German  Government  to  a  strict  account 
ability  for  such  acts  of  their  naval  authorities 
and  to  take  any  steps  it  might  be  necessary  to 
take  to  safeguard  American  lives  and  property 
and  to  secure  to  American  citizens  the  full  en 
joyment  of  their  acknowledged  rights  on  the 
high  seas." 

Great  Britain  and  Germany  replied,  and  the 
double  negotiation  was  being  conducted  with 
some  asperity  when  German  action  intervened. 


184  President  Wilson 

On  May  8,  1915,  the  Lusitania  was  torpedoed 
off  the  southern  coast  of  Ireland.  The  Lusi 
tania  was  one  of  those  huge  liners  which  carry 
the  aristocracies  of  America  and  Europe  with 
so  much  comfort  that  their  easy  existence  is 
scarcely  troubled.  She  was  torpedoed  without 
warning,  and  amongst  the  drowned — eleven 
hundred  in  all — one  hundred  Americans  per 
ished. 

A  cry  of  horror  rose  throughout  America. 
This  war  she  thought  so  far  away,  so  beyond 
her  purview,  was  attacking  and  wounding  her. 
Her  astonishment  was  as  great  as  her  anger. 
New  York  demanded  the  rupture  of  relations 
writh  Germany.  The  President's  decision  was 
awaited.  War!  Without  question  on  that 
day  he  could  have  declared  it.  On  that  day, 
said  many  Americans,  and  from  that  day  on 
any  day  the  President  was  in  a  position  to  de 
clare  war.  The  nation  would  have  followed 
him.  Undoubtedly  the  shock  was  violent,  and 
the  incitement  keen.  But  was  it  as  lasting  as  it 
was  sharp?  Would  the  nation  have  followed 
him  wholly  and  with  unchangeableness,  with 
the  absolute  devotion  so  necessary  in  the  con 
duct  of  such  a  struggle?  Listen  to  the  speech 
made  by  Professor  Lowell  of  Harvard.  "Let 
us  imagine  that  President  Wilson  had  decided 
to  launch  us  into  war  after  the  torpedoing  of 


Towards  War:  Deeds  185 

the  Lusitania.  Could  the  people  have  stopped 
him  ?  No,  because  everything — amidst  the  uni 
versal  waving  of  flags — would  have  given  place 
to  excitement.  Could  President  Wilson  have 
consulted  the  nation?  No,  because  events 
were  moving  too  rapidly.  He  might  have  con 
sulted  Congress,  but  Congress  is  not  the  na 
tion.  And,  even  had  he  consulted  the  nation, 
under  the  circumstances  what  response  would 
he  have  obtained?  An  emotion — for  a  nation 
passing  through  such  a  crisis  is  able  to  feel  an 
emotion  but  unable  to  form  an  opinion.  This 
emotion  was  war/'  *  The  President  had  in 
deed  the  power,  but  had  he  the  right? 

President  Wilson  almost  certainly  remem 
bered  that  twenty  years  earlier,  in  1898,  an 
analogous  catastrophe  had  plunged  the  ^United 
States  into  another  war.  The41  ironclad  Maine 
had  been  sunk  in  a  Cuban  port  then  belonging 
to  Spain.  Without  waiting  an  instant  for  re 
flection  or  inquiry,  the  American  public  held 
Spain  responsible  for  the  loss  of  life.  Presi 
dent  McKinley  was  swayed  by  the  national 
feeling  and  declared  war.  In  his  history  of 
the  American  people,  President  Wilson  blames 
his  predecessor.  "The  war  against  Spain  was 
inevitable  and  just,"  he  wrote,  "but  it  should 

*  Speech  to  the  League  to  impose  Peace.    Boston  Evening 
Transcript,  March  7,  1916. 


186  President  Wilson 

have  been  declared  after  reflection  and  after 
preparation."  President  McKinley  allowed 
himself  to  be  swept  off  his  feet,  and,  in  conse 
quence,  the  war  with  Spain  was  longer,  more 
difficult,  and  more  costly  than  it  should  have 
been.  "This  war  was  one  of  impulse,"  he  wrote 
again,  "and  it  was  clear  to  see  how  unprepared 
we  were  for  a  task  abruptly  undertaken.  The 
United  States  Army  consisted  of  no  more  than 
28,000  men,  officers  and  soldiers.  .  .  ." 

President  Wilson  did  not  intend  to  be  swept 
off  his  feet.  To  submit  to  the  contagion  of  an 
opinion  influenced  by  passion  was  repugnant 
to  him,  appearing  unworthy  of  his  character 
and  of  his  office.  In  May,  1915,  the  United 
States  was  in  his  opinion  unprepared  mate 
rially  as  well  as  morally,  and  he  did  not  wish 
to  urge  matters  forward. 

Three  days  after  the  destruction  of  the 
Lusitania  he  spoke  in  public.  His  speech  was 
an  appeal  for  calmness. 

"The  example  of  America  must  be  a  special 
example,  and  must  be  an  example  not  merely 
of  peace  because  it  will  not  fight,  but  because 
peace  is  a  healing  and  elevating  influence  of 
the  world,  and  strife  is  not.  There  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  man  being  too  proud  to  fight;  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  a  nation  being  so  right  that 


Towards  War:  Deeds  187 

it  does  not  need  to  convince  others  by  force 
that  it  is  right!' 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  man  being  too 
proud  to  fight.  .  .  .  For  no  words  has  he  been 
more  often  reproached.  Friends  of  the  En 
tente  saw  in  the  phrase  a  want  of  courage,  a 
cowardice  hidden  under  the  cloak  of  clever 
rhetoric,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  lack  of  spirit, 
a  flattery  and  demagogic  wheedling  to  attract 
the  pacifists.  Meanwhile  the  President  pre 
pared  in  perfect  silence  and  complete  solitude 
a  Note  to  Germany.  He  worked  alone  upon  it, 
and  called  together  his  Secretaries  of  State 
only  to  read  what  had  been  already  written. 

On  May  13  he  issued  his  reply.  Dignified 
and  firm,  the  whole  of  America  approved  it. 
The  hand  of  a  statesman  was  apparent,  a  man 
trained  to  arrive  at  the  essential  point  of  an 
argument,  to  define  it,  and  to  confine  himself 
to  it.  President  Wilson  did  not  allow  that 
merchant  ships  could  be  torpedoed  without 
warning  and  without  effort  to  rescue  the 
crews.  This  he  repeated,  adding  that  no  act 
or  deed  should  be  omitted  by  him  to  uphold  the 
rights  of  his  fellow  citizens.  Berlin  answered 
immediately,  but  evasively,  and  raising  quite 
another  question :  Was  the  Lusitania  armed  or 
unarmed?  The  evasion  was  a  smart  quibble, 
and  likely  to  divide  American  opinion.  Some 


188  President  Wilson 

of  the  Secretaries  of  State  weakened.  They 
telephoned  the  President  and  sent  him  sug 
gested  replies.  They  received  no  answer.* 
Bryan,  Secretary  of  State,  resigned.  The 
President,  who  had  until  then  been  careful 
to  conciliate  him  and  his  followers  person 
ally,  accepted  the  resignation.  Quitting 
Washington,  the  head  of  the  Senate  passed 
twenty-five  days  at  Cornish,  taking  counsel,  it 
seemed,  alone  with  Colonel  House,  his  intimate 
agent,  the  eminence  grise  of  a  new  Cardinal- 
Statesman.  The  President  did  not  admit  the 
German  subterfuge.  On  June  10,  he  repeated 
his  warning.  He  insisted  upon  reparation  for 
the  past  and  promises  for  the  future.  He  ex 
pressed  himself  with  "a  solemn  insistence," 
"hoping  against  hope"  that  there  would  be  no 
need  to  repeat  his  protests. 

What  would  be  the  effect  of  these  words? 
In  America,  as  in  Europe,  the  public  com 
menced  to  smile.  To  the  President's  Notes 
Berlin  always  returned  a  dilatory  reply,  and, 
under  the  cover  of  a  tricky  verbiage,  continued 
an  implacable  war.  In  July,  the  Nebraskan, 
an  American  ship,  was  torpedoed.  In  August, 
the  Arabic,  belonging  to  Great  Britain,  was 

*These  details  have  been  taken  from  an  energetic  article 
in  the  North  American  Review,  entitled  "The  Mystery  of 
Woodrow  Wilson"  (September,  1917). 


Towards  War:  Deeds  189 

sent  down,  American  lives  being  lost  in  the 
wreck.  President  Wilson's  position  became 
critical.  To  each  German  outrage  he  offered 
a  protest,  never  allowing  the  law  to  lapse 
through  lack  of  attention.  Germany  replied 
by  a  pretence  of  promises,  sham  excuses,  sug 
gestions  as  to  enquiry,  and  always  by  brutal 
deeds.  In  September,  1915,  a  German  subma 
rine  torpedoed  the  Allan  liner  Hesperian  one 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  west  of  Queenstown. 
Thus  Germany  defied  America  on  the  high 
seas.  She  behaved  in  the  same  manner  on 
land,  defying  America  on  the  very  soil  of  the 
States.  In  their  own  land  she  endeavoured 
to  stir  up  the  Americans  of  German  birth  or 
origin.  And  this  audacious  attempt,  of  which 
we  knew  the  existence  in  Europe  although  we 
only  partially  realised  its  gravity,  rendered 
President  Wilson's  position  tragic.  The  Ger 
man  terrorists  blew  up  bridges,  burnt  fac 
tories,  and  fomented  strikes.  In  August,  1915, 
whilst  the  President  negotiated,  and  Berlin 
counter-balanced  his  Notes  with  torpedoing 
and  murder,  the  World,  a  New  York  journal, 
published  authentic  documents  revealing  the 
underground  German  plots.  Even  diplomatists 
were  compromised,  including  a  military  at 
tache,  a  naval  attache,  and  the  Austrian  am 
bassador,  Dr.  Dumba.  The  government  insti- 


190  President  Wilson 

tuted  proceedings,  seized  papers,  and  discov 
ered  deeds  so  grave,  so  threatening  for  the 
United  States,  that  the  knowledge  of  them  was 
kept  from  the  public  and  silence  decided  upon.* 
At  the  same  moment  the  Mexican  troubles  re 
vived,  and  President  Wilson  was  again  con 
fronted  with  the  fantastic  activity  of  those  he 
was  henceforward  to  consider  the  enemies  of 
his  country,  of  peace  itself,  and  of  all  human 
order.  Germans  were  found  in  the  Mexican 
irregular  bands.  Their  military  knowledge 
gave  them  authority,  and  they  were  often  in 
command.  They  had  received  instructions  in 
cessantly  to  endeavour  to  provoke  a  conflict 
between  Mexico  and  the  United  States.  The 
task  was  easy.  They  led  their  bands  to  the 
American  holdings,  encouraging  their  follow 
ers  to  pillage,  and,  if  possible,  to  murder. 
Many  Americans  were  killed. 

Thus,  whilst  Europe  became  slowly  engulfed 
in  the  horror  of  monotonous  slaughter,  the 
war  insinuated  itself  afar,  and  reached  the 
New  World.  What  was  President  Wilson 
able  to  do?  The  whole  nation  had  made  him 
the  guardian  of  its  honour,  and  this  honour, 
as  it  rested  in  his  hands,  was  being  flouted. 

"These  papers,  or  at  least  some  of  them,  were  published  in 
September,  1917.  They  reveal  the  frightful  work  of  German 
corruption. 


Towards  War:  Deeds  191 

He  was  roughly  told  so.  He  disregarded  the 
outrages,  but,  better  than  any  one  else,  he  knew 
how  bad  the  situation  was.  Should  he  sud 
denly  commence  a  more  violent  policy,  declar 
ing  war  against  Germany  and  Mexico,  and  in 
the  United  States  coercing  ten  or  twenty  mil 
lions  of  German-Americans,  Irish,  Jews,  and 
Austrians?  Had  he  the  strength?  To  defend 
the  interests  of  an  immense  country,  inhabited 
by  one  hundred  millions  of  men,  he  had  the  dis 
position  of  an  army  of  sixty  thousand!  Presi 
dent  Wilson  has  never  uttered  a  word  concern 
ing  the  anguish  and  bitterness  of  his  task. 
However,  we  can  form  some  idea  of  it. 

There  was  another  aspect.  The  President 
was  invested  with  immense,  and,  to  a  certain 
degree,  almost  illimitable  powers.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  these  powers  were  narrowly  lim 
ited  and  almost  valueless.  They  were  limited 
to  a  duration  of  four  years,  of  which  three 
were  almost  expired.  Would  he  be  re-elected  ? 
Yes,  perhaps;  no,  perhaps.  To  initiate  the 
most  formidable  action  he  had  before  him  some 
twelve  or  thirteen  months  of  a  precarious 
power,  a  power  already  diminished  by  the  ap 
proaching  close  of  his  term  of  office.  Human 
institutions,  political  constructions  raised  by 
men,  are  in  themselves  essentially  weak.  All 
are  defective  and  feeble  in  some  respect  or 


192  President  Wilson 

other.  Nature  has  given  men  the  need  of  gov 
ernment  but  refused  them  the  instinct  of  gov 
erning.  She  leaves  them  groping,  trying  to 
supply  their  deficiencies  by  artifice.  Artifice  or 
heredity.  Artifice  in  the  form  of  an  electorate. 
And  whatever  may  be  the  advantages  of  an 
electorate  it  can  only  create  a  fluctuating 
power,  returning  from  time  to  time  (four  or 
seven  years,  it  does  not  matter  which  period) 
to  interregnums  and  crises  introduced  into  the 
constitution  by  the  people  themselves.  And 
the  stronger  and  more  effectual  the  created 
power,  so  more  perilous  are  these  eclipses,  so 
more  profound  the  crises  of  their  refashion 
ing  and  the  more  harmful  a  return  of  the 
crises.  The  Republic  of  the  United  States,  in 
other  respects  so  young  and  brilliant,  has  its 
weak  spot,  its  heel  of  Achilles. 

Assuredly  President  Wilson  had  in  his  mind 
the  crisis  which  would  interrupt  and  possibly 
terminate  his  period  of  office.  His  adversaries 
reproached  him  for  it.  They  accused  him,  to 
state  the  fact  in  crude  terms,  of  considering 
his  re-election  rather  than  the  honour  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  endeavouring  to  escape 
war  in  order  to  gain  the  goodwill  of  the  masses. 
These  imputations  can  be  disregarded.  In  so 
solemn  a  story  let  only  grave  thoughts  be 
found.  We  believe  that  President  Wilson  was 


Towards  War:  Deeds  193 

not  able  to  keep  from  his  calculations  the  real 
ity  of  a  crisis  which  would  diminish  his  author 
ity  at  the  moment  he  had  an  extreme  need  for 
its  unimpaired  use.  Responsible  leaders  must 
not  be  judged  too  quickly.  Trouble  must  be 
taken  to  estimate  the  task  before  them.  Con 
sider  Wilson's  problem.  He  was  confronted 
by  the  commencement  of  a  civil  war.  He  fore 
saw  an  imminent  crisis.  Germany  was  against 
him  everywhere,  on  the  sea,  in  Mexico,  even 
in  the  United  States.  He  had  no  army.  Not 
ing  these  aspects  of  the  situation,  dare  we 
blame  his  prudence? 

Prudence  did  not  prevent  him  from  taking 
action.  His  first  wish  was  for  internal  peace. 
Without  taking  counsel  with  Congress,  he  ex 
pelled  from  the  United  States  those  diplomatic 
felons  who  had  been  accredited  to  him.  The 
Austrian  Dumba  and  the  two  German  captains 
Boy-Ed  and  Von  Papen  were  put  outside  the 
frontier.  This  action  did  not  turn  him  aside 
from  the  negotiations  he  had  commenced.  He 
desired  to  obtain  German  recognition  in  writ 
ing  of  the  right  of  neutrals  to  navigate  the 
seas  without  running  peril  of  death.  Pain 
fully,  and  after  much  insistence,  he  obtained 
what  he  wanted.  Germany  would  not  torpedo 
mail  steamers  without  warning  and  necessary 
precaution.  This  engagement  was  dated  Sep- 


194  President  Wilson 

tember  ist.  She  regretted  the  torpedoing  of 
the  Arabic,  held  herself  ready  to  indemnify  the 
victims,  and  announced  that  instructions  had 
been  given  "so  stringent  that  the  recurrence 
of  similar  incidents  is  considered  out  of  the 
question"  (dated  October  5th).  She  promised 
to  spare  the  merchant  vessels  in  the  Mediter 
ranean  (dated  January  7,  1916).  Unques 
tionably  these  promises  were  only  Notes  an 
swering  Notes.  But  what  more  did  President 
Wilson  want?  He  was  seeking  to  safeguard 
a  principle,  to  maintain  intact  the  liberty  of 
his  ulterior  measures,  of  his  protests  and  acts. 
In  this  he  succeeded. 

Principles  saved  and  agitators  expelled, 
President  Wilson,  signifying  his  will,  main 
tained  a  straight  road  amidst  grave  disorder. 
In  December,  1915,  according  to  custom,  he 
sent  his  annual  message  to  Congress.  He  ex 
pressed  himself  in  strong  terms,  and  de 
nounced  American  pro-Germans. 

"I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  gravest  threats 
against  our  national  peace  and  safety  have 
been  uttered  within  our  own  borders.  There 
are  citizens  of  the  United  States,  I  blush  to 
admit,  born  under  other  flags,  but  welcomed 
under  our  generous  naturalisation  laws  to  the 
full  freedom  and  opportunity  of  America,  who 


Towards  War:  Deeds  195 

have  poured  the  poison  of  disloyalty  into  the 
very  arteries  of  our  national  life;  who  have 
sought  to  bring  the  authority  and  good  name 
of  our  Government  into  contempt,  to  destroy 
our  industries  wherever  they  thought  it  effec 
tive  for  their  vindictive  purposes  to  strike  at 
them,  and  to  debase  our  politics  to  the  uses  of 
foreign  intrigue.  Their  number  is  not  great 
as  compared  with  the  whole  number  of  those 
sturdy  hosts  by  which  our  nation  has  been 
enriched  in  recent  generations  out  of  virile 
foreign  stocks;  but  it  is  great  enough  to  have 
brought  deep  disgrace  upon  us  and  to  have 
made  it  necessary  that  we  should  promptly 
make  use  of  processes  of  law  by  which  we  may 
be  purged  of  their  corrupt  distempers. 

"America  never  witnessed  anything  like  this 
before.  It  never  dreamed  it  possible.  .  .  .  Be 
cause  it  was  incredible  we  made  no  preparation 
for  it.  But  the  ugly  and  incredible  thing  has 
actually  come  about  and  we  are  without  ade 
quate  Federal  laws  to  deal  with  it.  ...  I  urge 
you  to  enact  such  laws.  .  .  .  Such  creatures 
of  passion,  disloyalty,  and  anarchy  must  be 
crushed  out." 

He  asked  for  further  laws.  Military  train-* 
ing,  which  in  former  years  had  failed  to  inter 
est  him,  now  aroused  his  attention.  "It  would 


196  President  Wilson 

be  shameful,"  he  remarked,  "if  I  had  learned 
nothing  in  fourteen  months. 

"War  is  a  thing  of  disciplined  might.  If 
our  citizens  are  ever  to  fight  effectively  upon 
a  sudden  summons,  they  must  know  how  mod 
ern  fighting  is  done,  and  what  to  do  when  the 
summons  comes  to  render  themselves  immedi 
ately  available  and  immediately  effective. 
And  the  Government  must  be  their  servant  in 
this  matter,  must  supply  them  with  the  train 
ing  they  need  to  take  care  of  themselves  and 
of  it.  ...  They  must  be  fitted  to  play  the 
great  role  in  the  world,  and  particularly  in  this 
hemisphere,  for  which  they  are  qualified  by 
principle  and  by  chastened  ambition  to  play. 

"It  is  with  these  ideals  in  mind  that  the  plans 
of  the  Department  of  War  for  more  adequate 
national  defence  were  conceived  which  will  be 
laid  before  you,  and  which  I  urge  you  to  sanc 
tion  and  put  into  effect  as  soon  as  they  can  be 
properly  scrutinised  and  discussed." 

Such  a  message  but  slightly  resembles  the 
harangues  of  the  preceding  year.  President 
Wilson  had  recovered  his  energy  for  reform 
and  exhibited  it  at  full  strength. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  German  terrorists  con 
tinued  their  plots.  In  Pennsylvania  they  burnt 
granaries.  At  Bethlehem  and  Topeka  they 
blew  up  munition  factories.  In  Ohio  they  fo- 


Towards  War;  Deeds  197 

mented  and  provoked  strikes  and  riots.  In 
New  York  Harbour  a  merchant  vessel  was 
scuttled.  In  Mexico  they  supplied  Huerta  and 
Villa,  and  their  troops,  with  money.  In  the 
United  States  even  they  organised  and  armed 
Germans  who  had  not  been  able  to  mobilise  at 
their  country's  call.  They  prepared  a  raid 
upon  Canada.  The  American  police  were 
aware  of  the  plot  and  prevented  it.  But  a  fire, 
the  act  of  an  incendiary,  completely  destroyed 
the  Canadian  parliament  buildings.  The  fever 
and  fury  of  the  Old  World  was  injuring  this 
New  World,  so  proud  of  its  youth  and  hon 
esty.  Peace  and  American  unity  were  being 
broken  up.  President  Wilson  decided  to  act, 
and,  in  the  popular  phrase,  to  take  the  bull  by 
the  horns.  He  announced  his  intention  of  con 
ducting  an  oratorical  campaign  in  favour  of 
the  measures  dealing  with  military  training. 
He  would  deliver  his  first  speech  in  that  part  of 
the  States  almost  wholly  peopled  by  citizens 
of  German  origin. 

It  was  time.  Even  his  own  party  had  com 
menced  to  rebel.  At  the  close  of  January, 
1916,  the  Democrats  seemed  disposed  to  delay 
the  vote  upon  the  military  training  measures. 
Bryan  ostentatiously  asserted  that  he  was  not 
joining  the  tour.  The  President  left  Wash- 


198  President  Wilson 

ington,  and  the  whole  country  watched  a  de 
parture  of  fateful  consequence.  If  the  Presi 
dent  failed  there  would  be  an  end  of  his  meas 
ures,  of  his  government,  of  his  career.  Once 
more  he  would  become  a  college  professor,  and 
another  would  occupy  his  seat. 

To  follow  in  the  press  the  various  stages  of 
his  career  gives  a  curious  series  of  pictures. 
We  are  able  to  perceive  the  immensity,  the 
want  of  cohesion,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the 
greatness  of  the  American  people.  On  the 
29th,  he  was  at  Pittsburgh,  the  iron  city.  The 
men  who  worked  there  were  making  money, 
and  had  other  things  to  do  than  to  listen  to 
speeches.  The  President  was  received  with 
indifference,  and  his  meeting  was  but  a  partial 
success.  On  the  3ist,  he  was  at  Milwaukee. 
This  city,  whose  name  is  unknown  in  France, 
is  as  large  as  Lyons.  The  population  numbers 
over  400,000  inhabitants,  the  majority  of  for 
eign  extraction.  Milwaukee  is  a  German  town, 
and  the  President  stopped  there  by  design. 
He  arrived  with  a  guard,  a  rare  occurrence  in 
the  United  States.  Horse  militia  escorted  his 
carriage,  a  line  of  police  separating  him  from 
the  crowd.  In  a  word,  he  defied  his  audience. 
Then  he  spoke.  At  the  outset  he  glorified 
American  patriotism.  "America  first !"  he 


Towards  War:  Deeds  199 

cried,  and,  as  the  public  applauded,  he  tackled 
the  question  of  the  moment. 

"In  the  first  place,  I  know  that  you  are  de 
pending  upon  me  to  keep  this  nation  out  of 
war.  So  far  I  have  done  that.  And  I  pledge 
you  my  word  that,  God  helping  me,  I  will,  if  it 
is  possible." 

A  burst  of  acclamation  interrupted  his 
words.  He  waited,  then  continued: 

"But  you  have  laid  another  duty  on  me. 
You  have  bidden  me  see  that  nothing  stains  or 
impairs  the  honour  of  the  United  States.  And 
that  is  a  matter  not  within  my  control.  That 
depends  on  what  others  do,  not  upon  what  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  does,  and 
therefore  there  may  be,  at  any  moment,  a  time 
when  I  cannot  both  preserve  the  honour  and 
the  peace  of  the  United  States.  Do  not  exact 
of  me  an  impossible  and  contradictory  thing, 
but  stand  ready  and  insist  that  everybody  who 
represents  you  should  stand  ready  to  provide 
the  means  for  maintaining  the  honour  of  the 
United  States." 

Again  he  was  cheered,  but  the  acclamation 
seemed  less  spontaneous  and  enthusiastic. 

"Do  not  deceive  yourself  as  to  where  the 
colours  of  your  flag  came  from.  Those  lines 
of  red  are  lines  of  blood,  nobly  and  unselfishly 
shed  by  men  who  loved  the  liberty  of  their 


200  President  Wilson 

fellow-men  more  than  they  loved  their  own 
lives  and  fortunes.  God  forbid  that  we  should 
have  to  use  the  blood  of  America  to  freshen 
the  colour  of  that  flag,  but  if  it  should  ever  be 
necessary  again  to  assert  the  majesty  and  in 
tegrity  of  those  ancient  and  honourable  prin 
ciples  that  flag  will  be  coloured  once  more,  and 
in  being  coloured  will  be  glorified  and  puri 
fied." 

More  applause.  The  proceedings  passed  off 
becomingly.  The  President  had  dared  to  come, 
and  that  was  much. 

He  left  Milwaukee  in  his  campaign  train, 
which  stopped  from  station  to  station,  allow 
ing  time  for  a  welcome,  a  few  words,  and  a 
popular  greeting.  Under  such  circumstances 
a  slightly  rough  familiarity  is  to  be  expected, 
and  does  not  shock.  Mrs.  Wilson  (the  Presi 
dent  had  recently  remarried)  accompanied  her 
husband,  and  the  crowd  was  insistent  to  see 
the  newly  married  wife,  who  was  reputed  a 
beauty.  A  voice  cried  from  the  crowd : 

"Where  is  Mrs.  Wilson?  Stand  back,  Mr. 
President,  so  that  we  may  have  a  look  at  her !" 

"There  she  is,"  replied  the  President.  "She 
is  more  pleasant  to  look  at  than  I  am." 

"That's  true  enough." 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  he  was  at 
Chicago.  The  Germans  are  numerous  there, 


Towards  War:  Deeds  201 

and  the  police  were  watchful.  On  February 
2nd  he  spoke  at  Kansas  City  to  an  audience  of 
15,000.  Kansas  City  is  the  centre  of  a  great 
agricultural  district.  Its  inhabitants,  sepa 
rated  from  the  two  oceans  by  chains  of  moun 
tains,  are  entirely  engrossed  in  their  cattle 
breeding  and  harvests.  They  ignore  world 
problems.  To  them  there  is  no  difference  be 
tween  a  King  of  Italy  and  a  Prince  of  Siam. 
They  know  only  the  land,  their  land.  Subma 
rine  warfare  disturbs  them  not  a  jot.  Before 
these  men  President  Wilson  delivered  one  of 
his  most  striking  addresses.  He  spoke  of  the 
vast  world  in  which  they  were  so  little  inter 
ested.  He  described  ports  they  had  never  seen. 
But  their  corn,  and  the  meat  of  their  beasts, 
went  to  these  ports,  were  loaded  in  ships  and 
carried  to  England  and  France.  If  these  mar 
kets  were  not  open,  prices  could  not  be  so  good. 
The  ships  therefore  required  care  and  protec 
tion.  This,  amongst  many  others,  was  one  of 
the  duties  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  But  where  would  his  authority  be  if 
he  had  not  behind  him  an  awakened  people 
prepared  to  lend  him  their  aid? 

"You  are  counting  upon  me  to  see  to  it  that 
the  rights  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
wherever  they  might  be,  are  respected  by 


202  President  Wilson 

everybody.  .  .  .  And  I  have  come  out  to  ask 
you  what  there  was  behind  me  in  this  task. 

"You  know  the  lawyers  speak  of  the  law 
having  a  sanction  back  of  it.  The  Judge,  as 
he  sits  on  his  bench,  has  something  back  of 
him.  .  .  .  But  when  I,  as  your  spokesman  and 
representative,  utter  a  judgment  with  regard 
to  the  rights  of  the  United  States  in  its  rela 
tions  to  other  nations,  what  is  the  sanction? 
What  is  the  compulsion?  .  .  . 

"It  is  necessary,  my  fellow  citizens,  that  I 
should  come  and  ask  you  this  question.  .  .  . 
There  may  come  a  time — I  pray  God  it  may 
never  come,  but  it  may,  in  sjite  of  everything 
we  do,  come  upon  us,  and  come  of  a  sudden — 
when  I  shall  have  to  ask:  'I  have  had  my  say. 
Who  stands  back  of  me?  Where  is  the  force 
by  which  the  majesty  and  right  of  the  United 
States  are  to  be  maintained  and  asserted  ?' 

"I  have  seen  editorials  written  in  more  than 
one  paper  of  the  United  States  sneering  at  the 
number  of  notes  that  were  being  written  from 
the  State  Department  to  the  foreign  govern 
ments,  and  asking,  Why  does  not  the  Gov 
ernment  act?'  And  in  those  same  papers  I 
have  seen  editorials  against  the  preparation 
to  do  anything  whatever  effective  if  these  notes 
are  not  regarded.  ...  It  may  be  the  temper 


Towards  War:  Deeds  203 

of  some  editorial  offices,  but  it  is  not  the  tem 
per  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

"I  came  out  upon  this  errand  from  Wash 
ington.  ...  I  have  been  thrilled  by  the  ex 
periences  of  these  few  days,  and  I  shall  go  back 
to  Washington  and  smile  at  anybody  who  tells 
me  that  the  United  States  is  not  wide  awake. 
But,  gentlemen,  crowds  at  the  stations,  multi 
tudes  in  great  audience  halls,  cheers  for  the 
Government,  the  display — the  ardent  display 
as  from  the  heart — of  the  emblem  of  our  na 
tion,  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  only  express  the 
spirit  of  the  nation;  it  does  not  express  the 
organised  force  of  the  nation. 

".  .  .  The  Government  asks  you  to  give  it 
arms.  The  very  essentials  of  the  American 
tradition  dictate  our  demand.  The  constitu 
tion  of  each  state  forbids  its  assembly  to  re 
strain  the  right  of  carrying  arms,  a  right  which 
belongs  to  each  of  us.  The  founders  of  our 
institutions  understood  from  the  first  that  the 
strength  of  a  nation  is  to  be  found  in  its 
homes.  I  do  not  say  the  moral  strength  alone. 
I  say  the  material  strength  as  well. 

"They  understood  that  each  man  has  the 
right  not  only  to  have  a  vote,  but  also  to  have 
— if  he  wanted  it — a  gun.  .  .  .  What  we  are 
asking  from  you  is  this:  that  the  nation  may 


204  President  Wilson 

hold  arms  ready  to  give  to  those  who,  in  the 
case  happening,  may  have  to  defend  it." 

When  he  had  spoken  the  President  said  to 
the  crowd,  "I  ask  you  to  let  me  finish  my  speech 
by  singing  with  you  'America/  ' 

Fifteen  thousand  men,  each  waving  accord 
ing  to  the  American  custom  a  little  American 
flag,  cheered  their  leader's  suggestion.  The 
President,  we  are  told  in  the  Sun  of  Febru 
ary  3rd,  stood  in  a  dramatic  attitude,  his  left 
hand  on  his  breast,  his  head  thrown  back  as 
he  sang.  When  the  second  verse  had  died 
away  the  crowd  wished  to  sing  it  again.  And 
Mr.  Wilson  led  their  voices  with  outstretched 
arms. 

He  then  travelled  towards  those  southern 
states  which  formed  his  native  soil.  He  loved 
the  warm  atmosphere  of  the  south.  At  St. 
Louis  he  spoke  before  18,000  hearers.  Per 
haps  he  was  a  trifle  excited  by  the  events  of 
the  tour.  The  fact  remains  that  his  speech 
was  a  surprise.  No  propagandist  in  favour  of 
the  measures  for  military  training,  not  even 
Mr.  Roosevelt,  had  expressed  himself  so 
strongly.  Speaking  of  the  navy,  "Do  you  real 
ise  its  task?"  he  asked.  "Have  you  ever  con 
sidered  the  enormous  extent  of  our  coasts, 
from  Panama  to  Alaska,  from  Panama  to 
Maine?  No  navy  in  the  world  has  so  difficult 


Towards  War:  Deeds  205 

a  task,  so  heavy  a  defence.  The  navy  ought, 
in  my  judgment,  to  be  incomparably  the  great 
est  navy  in  the  world/' 

What  would  Great  Britain  have  said,  had 
she  not  been  so  occupied  elsewhere?  The 
18,000  auditors  roared  with  enthusiasm.  But 
the  press  discussed  the  speech  with  astonish 
ment.  It  is  time,  remarked  a  Republican  or 
gan,  for  President  Wilson  to  return  to  the 
calming  influence  of  Washington. 

He  returned  to  find  warfare  rather  than 
peace.  The  politicians,  and — aggravating  ad 
dition — some  of  the  foremost  of  his  own  party, 
were  in  open  rebellion.  The  question  was  no 
longer  one  of  secret  malevolence,  of  a  tardy 
vote.  Direct  action  was  being  initiated,  and 
this  included  an  examination  of  the  whole 
course  of  the  diplomatic  negotiations  concern 
ing  the  submarine  war.  The  essential  pre 
rogative  of  the  American  presidency  wras  being 
attacked. 

Events  had  taken  a  fresh  turn  since  1916. 
Great  Britain  had  armed  its  merchant  ships  in 
self-defence,  and  some  of  these  armed  mer 
chantmen  had  entered  and  remained  in  Ameri 
can  ports.  Germany  at  once  protested,  on  the 
ground  that  these  armed  ships  should  be 
treated  in  the  same  manner  as  warships. 


206  President  Wilson 

President  Wilson  refused  to  admit  the  conten 
tion,  but  his  reply  did  not  close  the  discussion. 
The  German-Americans  declared  that  Ger 
many  had  the  right  to  sink  without  warning 
ships  armed  against  that  nation,  and  that 
American  citizens  who  embarked  on  such  ships 
should  be  warned  of  the  risk,  a  risk  they  un 
dertook  alone.  Many  Americans  found  these 
views  sensible  and  just,  and  were  troubled  by 
the  silent  obstinacy  with  which  President  Wil 
son  followed  another  policy.  Unceasingly  the 
German  agents  worked  to  develop  this  uneasi 
ness  and  bring  it  to  a  head.  They  did  not  have 
much  difficulty  in  making  friends  amongst  the 
six  hundred  members  of  Congress.*  On  Feb 
ruary  24,  1916,  a  kind  of  panic  seized  the 
assembled  representatives.  A  report  was 
spread  that  the  President  had  spoken  during 
his  tour  in  favour  of  armed  intervention. 
Suddenly  it  was  realised  that  war  was  an  in 
evitable  catastrophe.  The  representatives  ap- 

*German  policy  has  always  endeavoured  to  please  Con 
gress  at  the  expense  of  the  President.  A  pro-German  news 
paper  wrote  on  April  21,  1916,  "We  are  the  free  citizens  of 
a  free  republic,  in  which  the  government,  by  right  and  by 
law,  is  not  our  master  but  our  paid  servant.  .  .  .  We  have 
no  sovereign  to  lead  us  by  right  or  divine  inspiration.  We 
will  no  longer  tolerate  a  dictator.  ...  To  assure  the  unity 
and  solidarity  of  public  action  the  President  must  take 
counsel  with  Congress  before  deciding  a  line  of  conduct 
which  can  lead  either  to  peace  or  war." 


Towards  War:  Deeds  207 

peared  willing  to  act  in  conjunction  with  the 
Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  to  take  a 
strong  hand.  A  resolution  was  drafted  for 
bidding  Americans  to  embark  upon  armed 
ships. 

On  that  day  Germany  almost  conquered 
President  Wilson,  but  on  that  day  the  singular 
temper  of  the  man  was  revealed.  Behind  him 
was  an  uncertain  country,  before  him  an 
aroused  Congress.  He  did  not  vacillate  for  an 
instant.  The  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Foreign  Affairs  presented  himself,  with  two 
important  representatives,  to  acquaint  the 
President  of  the  intention  of  the  two  Houses. 
President  Wilson  refused  to  receive  them,  al 
lowing  it  to  be  understood  that  a  letter,  then 
being  put  together,  would  give  his  reply.  This 
letter  was  addressed  to  Senator  Stone,  who 
had  already  expressed  his  uneasiness  and  his 
doubts  to  the  President. 

"No  nation,  no  group  of  nations,  has  the 
right  while  war  is  in  progress  to  alter  or  dis 
regard  the  principles  which  all  nations  have 
agreed  upon  in  mitigation  of  the  horrors  and 
sufferings  of  war,  and  if  the  clear  rights  of 
American  citizens  should  ever  unhappily  be 
abridged  or  denied  by  any  such  action,  we 
should,  it  seems  to  me,  have  in  honour  no 
choice  as  to  what  our  own  course  should  be. 


208  President  Wilson 

"For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  consent  to  any 
abridgement  of  the  rights  of  American  citizens 
in  any  respect.  .  .  .  To  forbid  our  people  to 
exercise  their  rights  for  fear  we  might  be 
called  upon  to  vindicate  them  would  be  a  deep 
humiliation  indeed.  ...  It  would  be  a  delib 
erate  abdication  of  our  hitherto  proud  position 
as  spokesmen,  even  amidst  the  turmoil  of  war, 
for  the  law  and  the  right.  .  .  . 

"What  we  are  contending  for  in  this  matter 
is  of  the  very  essence  of  the  things  that  have 
made  America  a  sovereign  nation.  She  can 
not  yield  them  without  conceding  her  own  im- 
potency  as  a  nation,  and  making  virtual  sur 
render  of  her  independent  position  among  the 
nations  of  the  world. 

"I  am  speaking,  my  dear  Senator,  in  deep 
solemnity,  without  heat,  with  a  clear  conscious 
ness  of  the  high  responsibilities  of  my  office, 
and  as  your  sincere  and  devoted  friend.  If 
we  should  unhappily  differ,  w^e  shall  differ  as 
friends,  but  where  issues  so  momentous  as 
these  are  involved  we  must,  just  because  we 
are  friends,  speak  our  minds  without  reser 
vation." 

The  American  people  has  a  highly  developed 
sense  of  authority,  but  a  very  feeble  instinct 
of  parliamentary  manners.  It  applauded  the 
President  and  hooted  the  Representatives.  A 


Towards  War:  Deeds  209 

study  of  the  press  clearly  gives  this  impres 
sion.  With  the  exception  of  certain  pro-Ger 
man  papers,  which  denounced  President  Wil 
son's  "secret  diplomacy,"  the  press  generally 
approved  of  their  leader's  stroke  and  blamed 
what  it  described  as  "a  parliamentary  rebel 
lion."  The  President  was  appealing  to  the 
people,  they  said.  Congress  awaited  the  mas 
ter's  voice.  The  President  had  whip  in  hand. 

"Let  us  recognise,"  wrote  the  Sun,  which 
was  not  always  favourable  to  the  Adminis 
tration,  "that  however  badly  our  affairs  may 
be  administered  by  a  single  man  and  his  advis 
ors,  they  would  be  administered  much  worse 
if  they  were  subject  to  the  digressions  of  583 
senators  and  representatives.  What  at  the  pres 
ent  moment  is  unsatisfactory  would  become  in 
tolerable  in  the  future.  Instead  of  mistakes 
we  should  have  chaos.  .  .  .  There  is  not  a  man 
of  sound  sense,  who,  after  Wednesday's  ex 
hibition,  can  imagine  for  an  instant  that  our 
foreign  affairs  would  be  better  conducted  if 
they  were  under  the  influences  of  which  we 
have  just  witnessed  an  example.  .  .  .  Presi 
dent  Wilson's  bitterest  critic  could  not  wish  to 
substitute  in  his  place  a  Congress  united  in 
plenary  sitting." 

Public  anger  was  so  strong  that  the  repre 
sentatives  abruptly  ended  their  agitation  and 


210  President  Wilson 

ran  to  shelter.  President  Wilson,  considering 
them  humiliated,  consented  to  hear  them.  On 
the  25th  he  received  the  three  emissaries  he 
had  shut  his  door  to  on  the  24th.  The  inter 
view  was  curt. 

"I  intend  to  see  this  thing  through,"  said 
the  President. 

"The  country  is  of  a  different  opinion,"  re 
plied  the  emissaries. 

"Events  will  justify  me." 

The  President's  victory  lacked  one  important 
factor.  It  had  not  been  sanctioned  by  a  vote. 
Disturbing  rumours  were  spread.  It  was  said 
that  the  President  had  stated  that  if  the  United 
States  entered  the  war  they  would  shorten  the 
conflict  and  thus  render  a  great  service  to 
civilisation.  This  assertion  was  contradicted, 
but  the  denials  did  not  end  the  matter.  The 
President  wished  to  close  the  discussion.  He 
interviewed  an  influential  representative. 

"For  some  months  I  have  struggled  to  keep 
the  United  States  off  the  edge  of  a  precipice. 
My  task  has  been  immensely  increased  by 
members  of  Congress,  who  have  not  been 
aware  of  the  whole  facts  of  the  situation.  My 
hands  must  be  free.  This  resolution — which 
I  did  not  desire — has  not  been  the  subject  of  a 
vote.  I  wish  it  to  be  discussed  and  rejected." 

He  was  given  ample  satisfaction.     By  64 


Towards  War:  Deeds  211 

votes  to  14,  and  by  276  to  142  the  Senate  and 
the  House  of  Representatives  threw  out  the 
resolution  forbidding  Americans  to  travel  on 
merchantmen  armed  against  submarines.  The 
Germans  had  lost  their  last  hope. 

On  March  24,  1916,  the  Sussex,  which 
crossed  the  Channel  between  Folkestone  and 
Dieppe,  was  torpedoed  without  warning.  The 
vessel  was  a  mailboat  carrying  passengers. 
Amongst  the  Americans  on  board  were  Pro 
fessor  Baldwin,  one  of  President  Wilson's  col 
leagues  at  Princeton,  and  his  daughter,  who 
was  seriously  injured.  The  Professor  sent  the 
President  a  personal  telegram. 

"An  American  woman  travelling  within  her 
right,  carrying  an  American  passport,  struck 
down  on  the  Sussex,  and  now  hovering  be 
tween  life  and  death,  demands  reparation  for 
this  attempt  upon  the  lives  and  liberties  of 
Americans." 

America  was  thrilled.  Germany  had  clearly 
broken  the  promise  given  on  October  5th,  and 
America  found  herself  in  the  position  of  rup 
tured  relations  so  plainly  foreseen  and  defined 
by  her  President.  National  opinion  asserted 
itself  with  much  energy.  Official  reports 
showed  that  public  feeling  was  shared  at  the 
White  House.  Fifteen  days  were  given  to 


212  President  Wilson 

Germany  for  an  explanation.  On  April  10 
Germany  replied  that  the  Sussex  had  been  sunk 
by  an  English  mine.  But  the  facts  were  be 
yond  argument.  The  track  of  the  torpedo  had 
been  seen,  and  fragments  had  been  recovered. 
President  Wilson  shut  himself  up,  and,  for 
eight  days,  worked  with  his  private  advisors. 
On  April  19  he  summoned  Congress.  With 
out  a  doubt  this  step  was  determined  by  serious 
constitutional  considerations.  The  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  gives  the  President 
the  right  to  conduct  negotiations,  but  reserves 
to  Congress  the  right  to  declare  war.  It  is, 
however,  often  difficult  to  trace  a  clear  line  be 
tween  the  last  act  of  negotiations  and  the  first 
act  of  war.  President  Wilson  found  himself 
in  a  position  of  many  alternatives.  Without 
relinquishing  his  prerogatives  he  wished  to 
make  the  Congress  a  responsible  witness  of  the 
action  he  was  preparing.  "The  patience  of 
the  United  States  is  exhausted/'  he  announced. 
"Unless  the  Imperial  Government  should  now 
immediately  declare  and  effect  an  abandonment 
of  its7present  methods  of  warfare  against  pas 
senger  and  freight  vessels,  the  Government 
can  have  no  choice  but  to  sever  diplomatic  re 
lations  with  the  Government  of  the  German 
Empire  altogether/'  The  President  spoke 


Towards  War:  Deeds  213 

coldly,  quietly,  and  impressively.  Senators 
and  Representatives  listened  with  the  gravest 
attention.  At  his  last  word  they  rose  in  mark 
of  approbation,  not  as  a  body  but  slowly,  one 
by  one,  and  without  enthusiasm. 

In  Berlin  Ambassador  Gerard  handed  a 
peremptory  note  to  the  German  Government, 
which,  after  a  few  days'  silence,  replied  and 
gave  way.  The  Germans  would  sink  merchant 
ships  only  after  proper  warning  and  the  safety 
of  the  crews.  However,  the  Government  took 
care  not  to  pledge  the  future.  It  demanded 
that  the  British  Government  should  also  ob 
serve  the  rules  of  war  with  regard  to  block 
ades.  It  reserved  liberty  to  act  should  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  of  America  not 
succeed  in  obtaining  from  its  adversary  equal 
concessions.  President  Wilson  replied  quickly 
and  concisely.  He  acknowledged  the  promise, 
adding  that  he  expected  its  "scrupulous  exe 
cution."  This  would  avert  the  chief  danger 
of  a  rupture  of  relations,  he  stated  in  a  curious 
phrase.  As  to  the  bargain  the  German  Govern 
ment  were  endeavouring  to  strike,  he  energeti 
cally  refused  to  entertain  the  idea. 

"The  respect  due  to  American  citizens  on 
the  high  seas  ought  not  in  any  manner  or 
degree  to  be  subject  to  the  conduct  of  other 


214  President  Wilson 

governments.  .  .  .  The  responsibility  in  this 
matter  is  personal,  not  joint;  absolute,  not  rela 


tive." 


This  was  the  last  word  in  the  dialogue. 


IX — Towards  War:  Doctrines 


f"  "^HE  President  had  overcome  the 
Kaiser.  The  American  people  cele 
brated  the  "Sussex  pledge"  as  a  na- 

•*"  tional  victory.  They  wanted  peace, 
but  they  loved  prestige.  They  were  happy  in 
having  one  with  the  other.  The  President  had 
always  appeared  as  a  man  of  peace;  he  re 
mained  "the  man  who  kept  us  out  of  war." 
But  no  one  would  be  able  to  say  that  he  was  the 
man  of  a  humiliating  peace.  The  nation  was 
thus  satisfied  with  itself  and  with  its  head. 

The  satisfaction  was  entirely  popular.  Some 
one,  without  doubt,  did  not  share  it,  and  that 
person  was  the  President  himself.  Measuring 
his  victory,  he  was  aware  of  its  limits.  The 
German  chancellory  had  given  way,  but  with 
a  formal  reserve.  It  was  able  at  any  moment 
to  perjure  itself  or  to  withdraw  its  pledge. 
The  spring  of  1915  had  produced  a  tragic  sur 
prise — the  torpedoing  of  the  Lusitania.  The 
spring  of  1916  had  not  been  without  a  similar 
incident — the  torpedoing  of  the  Sussex.  What 
surprise  had  the  spring  of  1917?  And  that 
surprise  might  come  even  sooner.  Much  was 

215 


216  President  Wilson 

possible.  Like  a  clear  sky  suddenly  shrouded 
in  fog,  the  vast  space  between  Germany  and 
the  United  States  had  in  an  instant  become  a 
perilous  zone.  Submarines  on  the  water,  con 
spiracy  on  land,  diplomatic  intrigue  in  Mexico, 
all  were  equally  able  to  cause  war.  How  could 
it  be  avoided  ? 

There  was  no  longer  time.  Silently  but 
actually  the  war  had  already  attacked  the 
United  States,  introducing  innumerable  trou 
bles.  The  moral  unity  of  the  country  had  been 
broken,  the  economic  life  overthrown.  Whilst 
some  were  enriched  others  were  being  impov 
erished.  Thus  were  strikes  and  social  crises 
fomented.  Reforms  half-planned  were  inter 
rupted.  The  situation  called  for  the  radical 
recasting  of  the  military  system,  and,  after  the 
creation  of  a  great  fleet  the  creation  of  a  great 
army.  This  European  conflagration  they  had 
at  first  considered  so  far  away  was  gradually 
drawing  nearer.  It  had  surrounded  them. 
They  were  being  held  within  its  fire.  "This 
war,"  the  President  had  said  a  few  months 
earlier,  "is  the  last  the  United  States  will  be 
able  to  avoid  being  dragged  into."  But  the 
United  States  was  being  dragged  into  it.  The 
American  people,  still  unconscious  of  their 
peril,  felt  deeply  that  they  had  the  right  and  the 
duty  to  intervene,  to  arbitrate  a  peace  by  every 


Towards  War:  Doctrines  217 

force  a  great  nation  can  dispose  of,  in  order 
to  assure  the  future  against  the  return  of  such 
a  catastrophe. 

From  that  time  the  idea  of  intervention  occu 
pied  the  imagination  of  the  American  people. 
They  knew  neither  the  moment  nor  the  man 
ner.  But  they  were  sure  that  history  destined 
them  to  act  as  peacemakers  and  reformers  in 
unhappy  Europe.  Upon  this  point  opinion 
agrees.  A  few,  not  so  numerous  as  ardent, 
cried,  "Let  us  intervene  with  arms  and  defend 
the  right."  Others  said,  "If  we  intervene  we 
shall  not  be  able  to  arbitrate  the  peace,  so  do 
not  let  us  intervene."  But  all  thought,  "peace 
will  be  our  doing."  Upon  that  point  all  were 
in  complete  accord. 

In  May,  1916,  many  newspapers,  interpret 
ing  the  public  view,  reproached  the  President 
for  his  lack  of  action.  Why  did  he  stop  after 
His  success?  Why  did  he  not  make  use  of  such 
an  excellent  opportunity?  If  he  proposed  him 
self  as  arbitrator  the  belligerents  would  listen 
to  him.  The  President  was  better  informed. 
He  knew  that  the  belligerents  would  not  listen 
to  him.  He  remained  silent,  reflecting  upon  the 
new  task  events  were  preparing  for  him. 

His  reflections  were  mingled  with  that  pru 
dence  we  have  seen  from  the  commencement. 
He  was  pressed  to  intervene.  The  conse- 


218  President  Wilson 

quences  of  such  an  act  had  to  be  well  consid 
ered.  Intervention  would  bring  the  war  still 
closer.  At  the  extreme  end  of  intervention 
was  war,  which  the  President  saw  always 
nearer  and  more  threatening.  How  could  his 
people  enter  the  war  united  and  enthusiastic? 

United — that  was  the  first  necessity.  Presi 
dent  Wilson  had  been  watching  for  two  years, 
and  the  same  policy  had  to  be  continued.  Be 
tween  Germans,  French,  English  and  Russians 
he  would  make  no  choice.  He  could  show  no 
personal  inclination  towards  any  of  the  foreign 
causes.  He  surveilled  himself  constantly,  al 
though  there  was  no  question  of  his  own  feel 
ings.  He  was  for  the  Entente  and  against  the 
Empires.  But  he  forbad  himself  to  show  this 
feeling.  If  he  entered  the  war  it  must  be  for 
reasons  and  new  principles  which  would  not 
run  counter  to  the  passions  of  any  American. 

Enthusiastic — enthusiasm  is  necessary  if 
democracies  are  to  act.  President  Wilson 
knew  the  American  people.  He  knew  that  the 
nation  was  allied,  in  spite  of  its  youth,  with  old 
Christian  and  revolutionary  movements  of  Eu 
rope.  Puritans  and  persecuted  Huguenots 
were  its  first  ancestors.  The  ideas  and  the  men 
of  the  eighteenth  century  gave  it  freedom. 
The  exiles  of  1848  (a  great  number  German 
republicans)  asked  a  refuge  of  it.  The  Amer- 


Towards  War:  Doctrines  219 


ican  people  has  an  instinct  and  desire  for  noble 
causes  which  excite  and  arouse  it.  The  Presi 
dent  knew  this.  "I  would  sooner  sacrifice/' 
he  declared  in  one  of  his  popular  speeches,  "a 
part  of  our  territory  than  a  part  of  our  ideal." 
A  humanist  liberalism  is  the  true  religion  of 
the  American  people.  Awaken  it  to  this  cry, 
appeal  to  it  for  the  defence  of  such  a  doctrine, 
and  the  nation  will  give  its  consent  to  the  sacri 
fice.  An  illustrious  master,  Charles  W.  Eliot 
of  Harvard,  undertook  this  crusade.  Human 
ity  is  in  danger,  he  declared.  If  Prussianism 
triumphs  the  liberties  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
world  are  lost.  The  victorious  element  will, 
make  all  conform  to  its  own  civilisation,  and, 
setting  aside  all  hoped  for  reforms,  and  those 
already  commenced,  will  militarise  their  insti 
tutions.  The  Anglo-Saxon  world  must  unite  to 
gain  salvation.  The  United  States  must  enter 
into  alliance  with  Great  Britain  and  France 
and  fight  by  their  sides.  Other  public  men  pre 
sented  the  question  in  a  different  form,  but 
their  tendency  was  the  same.  The  Republic  of 
the  United  States,  they  said,  is  based  upon 
peace  and  can  only  develop  itself  in  a  world 
of  peace.  The  Prussian  state,  based  upon  war, 
invites  humanity  to  a  new  order  of  domination 
by  war.  The  United  States  must  oppose  this 
order,  this  Prussian  system,  by  another  order, 


220  President  Wilson 

the  system  of  Peace.  Such  is  the  cause,  at  once 
ideal  and  practical,  of  the  American  people.  A 
league  was  established  to  expound  it — The 
World  League  to  Enforce  Peace.  It  extolled 
arbitration  and  enquiry  before  conflict.  But  it 
insisted — and  in  this  respect  it  differed  from 
the  ordinary  pacifists — upon  the  necessity  of  a 
coercive  international  force,  a  union  of  all  the 
nations  of  the  world,  to  restrain  by  force  any 
nation  revolting  against  the  general  concert. 
Such  ideas  have  taken  a  strong  hold  of  the 
American  imagination  because  they  present 
many  analogies  with  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  individual  states  are  in 
deed  free,  but  they  are  united  by  a  federal 
power  which  determines  the  diverse  interests, 
and  which  represents  and  guards  the  common 
interests.  'The  principle  of  this  world  organ 
isation  [said  one  of  the  League's  orators] 
must  be  the  same  as  that  on  which  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  has  been  based. 
When  our  ancestors  founded  it  the  States  of 
New  Jersey  and  of  Virginia  abolished  their 
separate  navies.  ...  It  is  the  destiny  of  the 
United  States  to  further  this  idea,  for  the 
United  States  are  themselves  the  greatest 
league  for  peace  that  history  has  acquaintance 
with."  Perhaps  the  example  given  is  a  spe 
cial  case.  It  is  rash  to  identify  the  European 


Towards  War:  Doctrines  221 

states,  as  old-fashioned  and  vehement  as  reli 
gious  sects,  and  these  young  states  which  have 
grown  upon  the  American  prairies.  But  there 
is  at  least  the  appearance  of  an  example  which 
gives  life  to  the  theory.* 

Mr.  Taft,  a  former  President,  became  presi 
dent  of  the  League.  (We  must  think  of  M. 
Loubet  to  establish  an  analogy.)  Some  jurists 
and  university  men  of  importance  assisted  him. 
The  League  was  a  success.  An  American  re 
view,  the  Outlook,  observed  that  the  single  ex 
pression  of  its  name  wonderfully  assisted  the 
propaganda.  The  World  League  to  Enforce 
Peace.  The  supporters  of  unity  pronounced 
the  word  "world"  with  emphasis.  The  realists 
insisted  on  the  word  "enforce."  The  senti 
mentalists  strongly  accentuated  the  final  word 
"peace."  The  people  of  the  United  States  felt 
at  this  moment  the  need  to  serve  an  idealistic 
cause.  Their  wealth  was  prodigious,  and  it 
was  good  to  give,  for  their  gifts  in  comparison 
with  their  gains  were  nothing.  Reproaches 
for  this  increase  of  wealth  came  from  all  the 
European  belligerents,  from  the  Allies  as  well 
as  from  the  Central  Powers.  The  people  of 

*M.  Maxime  Leroy,  in  his  recent  book  on  La  Societe  des 
Nations  has  indicated  in  detail  how  American  experience  has 
confirmed  and  realised  the  theories  enunciated  by  the  League 
and  President  Wilson. 


222  President  Wilson 

the  United  States  suffered  this  reproach  with 
impatience.  They  considered  it  unjust.  They 
wished  to  prove  to  the  world  that  they  could 
renounce  as  well  as  profit,  could  spend  as  well 
as  gain.  They  desired  also — in  the  more  edu 
cated  sections  of  society  if  not  amongst  the 
masses — to  prove  by  their  acts  that  the  whole 
of  civilisation  had  not  been  dishonoured  by 
the  European  catastrophe,  that  one  nation  at 
least,  and  that  nation  the  United  States,  had 
not  extinguished  its  hopes,  and  that  Prussia 
had  not  gained  the  day  against  humanity. 
The  League  corresponded  sufficiently  to  the 
needs  of  the  people,  defining  a  human  cause, 
an  American  cause,  a  cause  that  America  as 
an  armed  missionary  might  perhaps  have  to 
defend  by  force.  This  league  satisfied  the  need 
of  the  American  people  to  assert  at  one  and 
the  same  time  their  idealism  and  their  strength. 
For  May  27,  1916,  the  League  arranged 
a  conference.  President  Wilson  was  sounded. 
Would  he  appear  and  speak?  He  accepted  the 
invitation. 

The  origins  of  President  Wilson's  system 
of  pacifism  are  not  far  to  seek  either  in  his 
past  career  or  in  his  written  works.  He  has 
been  called  a  late  disciple  of  the  eighteenth- 
century  philosophers.  This  is  not  exact,  for, 


Towards  War:  Doctrines          223 

in  politics,  his  ideas  tend  to  realism  and  author 
ity.  He  has  also  been  described  as  a  disciple 
of  Kant.  This  too  is  inexact,  his  ideas  are 
practical,  ancTEe  is  not  a  moralist.  But  the 
United  States  have  on  one  side  been  influenced 
by  the  eighteenth  century,  whilst  on  the  other 
they  themselves  influenced  that  dying  century 
and  the  Revolution.  From  these  facts  spring 
many  relationships  and  the  constant  possibili 
ties  of  confusion.  A  French  writer  has  en 
deavoured  to  show  that  President  Wilson  has 
been  inspired  by  Kant.*  It  would  be  more 
true  to  say  that  President  Wilson  inspired 
Kant,  for  the  principles  of  American  policy 
which  he  interprets  were  known  to  Kant  and 
his  time.  Their  influence  is  clear  in  his  "Meta- 
physik  der  Sitten"  ("Metaphysic  of  Ethics") 
and  his  "Project  for  Perpetual  Peace."  t 

"In  a  Congress  of  many  states,"  wrote  Kant, 
"the  question  is  one  of  an  arbitrary  union,  dis 
soluble  at  any  time,  and  not  a  union  which 
(like  that  of  the  United  States  of  America) 
would  be  founded  on  a  public  constitution,  and 
therefore  indissoluble.  In  this  manner  might 
be  formed  an  institution  which  would  enable 
men  to  decide  international  interests  accord- 

*Revue  des  Deux-Mondes,  February  15,  1917,  "Kant  et  M. 
Wilson,"  par  Cesar  Chabrun. 
t'Trincipes  metaphysiques  du  Droit,"  trad.  Tissot,  p.  238. 


224  President  Wilson 

ing  to  civil  methods,  that  is  to  say,  like  a  law 
suit,  and  not  in  the  barbarous  and  savage  man 
ner  of  war." 

President  Wilson  is  here  the  representative 
of  a  practice  earlier  than  the  theories.  Kant 
deviated  from  those  constitutional  principles 
with  which  he  was  dealing.  He  appeared  to 
foresee  an  international  form  of  government, 
in  which  the  various  states,  raised  to  a  higher 
moral  dignity,  would  themselves  insist  upon 
the  respect  due  to  law.  President  Wilson  ig 
nored  these  dreams.  "In  his  system  humanity 
becomes  an  organisation  with  a  function  to 
fulfil,  an  aim  to  reach,"  writes  M.  A.  Fe'ier 
very  ably.  "To  attain  that  end  humanity  has 
need  of  a  certain  proper  order,  and  the  ele 
ments  of  this  order  must  be  determined  ac 
cording  to  rule.  To  ensure  the  execution  of 
these  rules  the  organism  must  establish  rati 
fications  and  assents,  to  be  put  into  movement 
by  a  special  power.  It  is  clear  then  that  the 
contracting  system  must  be  replaced  by  a  statu 
tory  system;  that  the  autonomous  system, 
solely  based  upon  a  categorical  command,  gives 
place  in  Wilson's  idea  to  a  heteronomous  sys 
tem  which  can  at  need  call  force  to  its  aid.  .  .  . 
Still  more  absurd  is  the  likeness  to  Rousseau. 
,  In  contradiction  to  Rousseau,  Mr.  Wilson 


Towards  War:  Doctrines  225 

admits  a  constraint  in  the  name  of  the  law, 
which  limits  the  liberty  of  each  member  and 
suppresses  the  possibility  of  abuse  of  the  rights 
of  one  to  the  detriment  of  the  other  members. 
The  Wilsonian  system  is  authority  itself,  and 
there  is  no  fear  in  saying  so.  In  our  stage  of 
social  evolution  and  with  our  present  interna 
tional  manners  force  must  be  used  in  the  serv 
ice  of  right.  Pascal  wrote  that  justice  and 
force  must  be  linked  together,  so  that  what  is 
just  must  be  also  very  strong."  * 

The  President  adopted  the  League's  ideas 
with  that  rapidity  and  energy  which  make  him 
so  admirable  a  politician.  He  saw  that  these 
ideas  would  be  very  useful  to  him;  useful  for 
his  world  policy,  useful  also  for  his  home  pol 
icy  and  for  the  conduct  of  his  Party  in  which 
pacifists  were  so  numerous.  He  also  recog 
nised  that  the  proclamation  of  an  ideal  would 
give  him  a  greater  moral  and  semi-religious 
power.  'The  force  of  the  majority  is  the  inno 
vation  of  modern  society,"  he  wrote  in  1889. 
"To-day  the  art  of  the  statesmen  is  to  awaken, 
to  arouse,  and  to  direct  this  new  force."  To 
this  art  he  applied  himself,  and  stood  revealed 
a  master.  He  exerted  himself  with  a  calcu 
lated  lucidity,  but  also  with  a  poet's  ardour. 

*"Le    Systeme    de    M.    Wilson,"    by   A.    Feiier,    L'Avenir, 
August- September,  1917. 


226  President  Wilson 

He  not  only  inspired  and  led  forward  his  peo 
ple.  He  inspired  himself  with  his  people.  His 
sentiments  were  at  once  simple  and  profound, 
and,  in  expressing  them,  he  hoped  to  reach 
that  national  unity  which  was  the  limit  of  his 
efforts. 

So,  in  answer  to  the  League's  invitation,  he 
promised  to  deliver  an  important  speech.  His 
intention  was  announced  some  time  in  advance 
that  public  attention  might  be  awakened  and 
his  words  expected  with  attention.  This 
speech  deserved  study.  The  whole  tone  was 
neutral  and  pacifist,  as  he  intended. 

"With  the  causes  and  the  objects  of  the 
Great  War  we  are  not  concerned,"  he  said. 
"The  obscure  foundations  from  which  its  stu 
pendous  flood  has  burst  forth  we  are  not  in 
terested  to  search  for  or  explore."  The  effect 
of  the  war  was  to  threaten  certain  of  the  rights 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  United  States 
had  therefore  a  word  to  say  in  the  matter. 
"We  are  not  mere  disconnected  lookers-on." 
The  President  said  this  for  the  first  time,  and 
the  meaning  of  these  plain  words,  very  plainly 
pronounced,  was  understood.  He  continued: 
"We  are  participants,  whether  we  would  or 
not,  in  the  life  of  the  world.  The  interests  of 
all  nations  are  our  own  also.  We  are  partners 
zvith  the  rest,  and  what  affects  mankind  is  in- 


Towards  War:  Doctrines  227 

evitably  our  affair  as  well  as  the  affair  of  the 
nations  of  Europe  and  of  Asia.  .  .  ."  These 
were  big  words  for  an  American  statesman, 
for,  in  one  stroke,  they  broke  down  the  sepa 
ration  of  the  New  World  from  the  Old.  "We 
are  a  separate  people  with  a  separate  soul," 
hymned  the  American  people  in  1914.  In  1916 
their  President  declared  that  they  were  a  peo 
ple  amongst  peoples,  members  of  a  common 
humanity.  He  developed  his  ideas.  If  we  are 
participants  we  have  the  right  to  intervene. 
Then  he  added  a  threat  which  appears  to  refer 
to  Germany. 

"It  is  probable  that  if  it  had  been  foreseen 
just  what  would  happen,  just  what  alliances 
would  be  formed,  just  what  forces  arrayed 
against  one  another,  those  who  brought  the 
great  contest  on  would  have  been  glad  to  sub 
stitute  conference  for  force.  If  we  ourselves 
had  been  afforded  some  opportunity  to  apprise 
the  belligerents  of  the  attitude  which  it  would 
be  our  duty  to  take,  of  the  policies  and  prac 
tices  against  which  we  would  feel  bound  to  use 
all  our  moral  and  economic  strength,  and  in 
certain  circumstances  even  our  physical 
strength,  also  our  own  contribution  to  the 
counsel  which  might  have  averted  the  struggle, 
would  have  been  considered  worth  weighing 
and  regarding." 


228  President  Wilson 

President  Wilson  did  not  doubt,  and  has 
never  doubted,  that  "those  who  brought  the 
great  contest  on"  are  the  statesmen  of  Ger 
many. 

He  concluded  then  that  the  United  States 
should  join  with  other  nations  in  arranging  an 
agreed  peace.  "This  is  undoubtedly  the 
thought  of  America,  and  what  we  are  going 
to  say  at  the  right  moment."  He  defined  the 
wish  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Firstly,  the  belligerents  should  mutually  ar 
range  to  make  peace ;  secondly,  an  association 
of  nations  should  be  founded  to  maintain  the 
freedom  of  the  seas  and  to  prevent  any  war 
undertaken  in  opposition  to  treaty  rights  with 
out  previous  warning  and  the  submission  of 
the  litigious  claims  to  the  judgment  of  the 
world — a  mutual  guarantee  of  territorial  in 
tegrity  and  of  political  independence.  These 
words  are  italicized,  as  they  appear  to  define 
juridically  the  understanding  the  United 
States  will  be  ready  to  conclude  on  the  morrow 
of  the  war. 

The  speech  of  May  27th  was  considerably 
discussed.  The  partisans  of  the  Entente  re 
proached  the  President  for  his  impenitent 
neutrality;  the  conservative  Republicans  re 
proached  him  for  his  lack  of  reality,  his  un 
mindful  ignorance  of  diplomatic  problems. 


Towards  War:  Doctrines  229 

"A  universal  association  of  nations  .  .  ." 
ironically  wrote  Mr.  Morton  Fullerton.  "Such, 
then,  is  the  unstatesmanlike  dream  of  the  re 
sponsible  head  of  one  of  the  foremost  States 
of  the  world,  almost  two  years  after  the  out 
break  of  a  war  which  is  being  waged  in  con 
ditions  that  stultify  every  possible  pretext  for 
harbouring  such  a  dangerous  Utopia/'  * 

Would  Mr.  Morton  Fullerton  have  written 
those  words  to-day?  The  responsible  chief  of 
a  great  democracy  speaks  always  to  crowds 
which  are  sensible  to  dreams  alone.  To  attract 
them  he  must  expound  dreams.  But  he  can 
not  be  blamed  if  at  the  same  time  he  pursues 
his  own  plans.  The  speech  delivered  on  May 
27th  is  a  link  in  a  tight  chain.  The  President's 
design  was  to  familiarise  the  people  of  the 
United  States  with  the  idea  of  intervention  in 
the  European  conflict,  and  he  had  known  well 
how  to  do  it.  The  American  friends  of  Ger 
many  and  the  enemies  of  Great  Britain  under 
stood  and  signalled  the  danger.  The  Sun,  for 
May  29th,  protested: 

"Do  not  let  us  be  dragged  into  foreign  alli 
ances.  The  President  proposes  nothing  less 
than  the  reversal  of  our  traditional  policy,  set- 

*"The  American  Crisis  and  the  War,"  by  William  Morton 
Fullerton,  1916. 


230  President  Wilson 

ting  aside  the  position  which  up  to  the  present 
we  have  followed  so  closely." 

The  Sun  was  right  in  its  statement  of  the 
President's  attitude,  and  saw  without  doubt 
that  although  the  President  spoke  insistently 
of  peace  it  was  to  lead  the  people  of  which  he 
was  the  head  more  easily  towards  war. 


X — Re-election 


FROM  this  moment  the  electoral  period 
really    commenced.      Event    rapidly 
followed  event  both  within  and  with 
out    the    United    States.      For    the 
American  people,  however,  the  one  factor  dom 
inating  all  others  was  the  expiration  of  the 
presidential   term   of   office.      Whatever   else 
might  be  happening  this  alone  pre-occupied 
their  minds. 

Would  Woodrow  Wilson  be  re-elected? 
There  was  no  question  as  to  his  candidature, 
which  he  had  announced  in  February,  1913. 
In  a  letter  dated  February  13,  1913,  addressed 
to  Mr.  A.  Mitchell  Palmer  he  had  stated: 
"Four  years  is  too  long  a  term  for  a  President 
who  is  not  the  true  spokesman  of  the  people, 
who  is  imposed  upon  and  does  not  lead.  It  is 
too  short  a  term  for  a  President  who  is  doing 
or  attempting  a  great  work  of  reform  and  who 
has  not  had  time  to  finish  it."  As  adversary 
he  had  the  republican  party,  still  in  possession 
of  its  old  and  powerful  prestige,  supported  by 
the  great  financiers,  ardent  friends  of  the  En 
tente  who  bore  the  President  no  goodwill  for 

231 


232  President  Wilson 

his  neutrality,  and  backed  also  by  the  friends 
of  Germany  who  refused  to  forgive  him  for 
not  having  forbidden  the  sale  of  arms  and  mu 
nitions  to  the  Entente.  With  him  was  the  mass 
of  the  democratic  party.  It  had  long  been  de 
prived  of  the  advantages  of  being  in  power. 
But,  despite  petty  revolts,  it  still  followed  with 
discipline  a  leader  which  honoured  and  served 
it.  Mr.  Wilson  was  also  helped  by  a  tradition 
which  advises  the  American  people  to  retain  a 
president  in  office  if  he  merits  the  privilege. 
To  his  credit  stood  immense  work,  reforms 
achieved  and  in  progress,  and  an  unceasing 
activity  which  was  never  absent  when  called 
for. 

He  pressed  forward  the  military  training 
measure.  The  old  regular  army  consisted  of 
100,000  men.  He  wished  to  increase  it  to 
170,000,  with  a  reserve  of  230,000,  making 
400,000  in  all.  Behind  the  first  army  he 
planned  a  second  for  territorial  defence,  which 
would  also  consist  of  400,000  men.  Enlist 
ment  was  to  be  upon  the  voluntary  principle. 
But  "if  the  number  of  volunteers  did  not  suf 
fice  to  complete  the  effectives  of  the  battalions, 
the  necessary  men  would  be  raised  in  the  mi 
litia  organisations."  The  militia  included  all 
men  between  the  ages  of  18  and  45,  and  was  in 
fact  conscription.  President  Wilson  did  not 


Re-election  233 


refer  to  it  in  his  speech,  but  he  wanted  and 
obtained  it  according  to  the  principles  he  laid 
down.  On  other  points,  which  he  considered 
of  lesser  importance,  he  gave  way.  The  War 
Office  wanted  the  national  army  to  be  wholly 
subordinate  to  the  federal  state;  the  Demo 
crats  wished  the  State  Militia  kept  up  under  a 
partial  control  of  the  federal  military  authori 
ties.  The  President  refused  to  intervene,  al 
lowed  action  to  be  taken,  and  his  party  sub 
mitted. 

Events  soon  proved  that  the  concession  was 
not  a  happy  one.  Within  four  months  the  in 
volved  Mexican  business  became  more  acute, 
and  the  Government  of  the  United  States  was 
compelled  to  seek  the  aid  of  arms.  Already 
5,000  men  of  the  regular  army  had  entered 
Mexico,  under  the  command  of  General  Persh- 
ing,  to  pursue  the  irregular  bands.  A  long 
frontier  had  to  be  guarded  and  President  Wil 
son  called  out  the  militia.  This  immediate  test 
showed  sad  results.  Sixty-three  per  cent  of 
the  men  called  up  had  no  military  training,  and 
many  lacked  equipment  three  months  after 
their  mobilisation.  The  press  did  not  spare 
criticism  of  the  President  on  this  occasion. 
He  remained  silent.  It  may  be  believed  that 
he  was  not  altogether  upset  by  the  clear  reve 
lation  of  his  party's  blunder. 


234*  President  Wilson 

He  had  other  legislation  in  hand,  notably  a 
measure  destined  to  make  the  navy  second  in 
the  world.  President  Wilson  still  admitted  the 
maritime  supremacy  of  Great  Britain.  An 
other  law  concerned  the  mercantile  marine. 
Until  then  America  had  been  dominated  by  the 
old  shipping  industries  of  Europe.  The  Presi 
dent  wished  to  see  his  country  free  and  owning 
its  own  fleet  for  world  commerce  as  well  as  for 
war.  He  wanted  an  early  creation  of  what 
seemed  to  be  a  State  fleet.  Congress  did  not 
agree  with  him,  and  he  gave  way.  It  was  set 
tled  that  the  State  should  not  own  its  own  ships 
more  than  five  years  after  the  conclusion  of 
peace  in  Europe.  However,  he  had  been  al 
lowed,  on  essential  consideration,  a  capital  sum 
of  50,000,000  dollars  for  purchase  and  con 
struction.  The  future  was  soon  to  show  the 
urgency  of  this  credit  and  its  great  national 
utility. 

This  did  not  complete  his  plans.  President 
Wilson  had  not  forgotten  the  domestic  legis 
lation  he  had  already  initiated.  Two  measures 
remained  in  suspense,  one  dealing  with  agri 
cultural  credit,  the  other  with  child  labour  in 
factories.  The  approaching  end  of  the  parlia 
mentary  session  threatened  both.  Wishing  to 
save  them,  the  President  directly  appealed  to 
the  party  leaders.  The  measure  dealing  with 


Re-election  235 


child  labour  presented  great  judicial  difficul 
ties.  Promulgated  by  the  central  power  it  ap 
plied  to  the  internal  affairs  of  the  autonomous 
states  contrary  to  tradition  and  the  constitu 
tion.  The  President  had  recognised  this  sev 
eral  years  earlier.  "If  the  federal  legislation 
controlling  child  labour  in  factories  is  passed 
as  proposed/'  he  wrote,  "it  will  furnish  a  strik 
ing  example  of  the  extension  of  the  central 
power,  quasi-unlimited  and  exceeding  the  writ 
ten  text  of  the  constitution."  But  President 
Wilson  had  a  passion  for  centralised  author 
ity,  and  no  religious  belief  in  the  written  word. 
He  obtained  his  measure  after  a  sharp  conflict 
with  the  industrial  magnates.* 

There  remained  some  domestic  legislation, 

*This  law  offers  an  example  of  the  curious  procedure 
employed  by  the  Federal  American  State  to  extend  its  powers. 
It  does  not  possess  the  power  to  impose  legislation  upon 
any  particular  State  with  regard  to  labour.  So  it  acts  as 
follows.  It  evokes  its  rights  to  regulate  commercial  exchange 
between  the  States.  It  forbids  the  circulation  of  products 
which  have  not  been  manufactured  according  to  the  stand 
ards  established  by  law.  This  juggling  serves  its  purpose. 
All  industries  must  conform,  unless  they  renounce  the  bene 
fits  of  federal  and  world  markets,  and  must  not  employ  a 
child  under  the  age  of  fourteen.  Children  under  seventeen 
cannot  be  employed  on  night  work,  or  for  more  than  eight 
hours.  An  analogous  proceeding  permits  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  to  establish  a  censorship  after  having 
declared  war.  The  press  is  allowed  every  liberty  of  criticism. 
But  should  this  become  trying  postal  service  is  refused. 
Criticism  is  not  forbidden,  but  it  is  smothered. 


236  President  Wilson 

suddenly  improvised,  and  of  a  very  discussable 
nature,  which  brought  the  four  years  of  his 
first  presidency  to  a  close.  In  August,  1916, 
400,000  railway  workers — mechanics,  guards, 
higher-grade  engine  drivers — imperatively  de 
manded  a  reduction  of  their  working  hours 
from  nine  or  ten  to  eight.  The  railway  cor 
porations  refused  the  demand,  and  proposed 
arbitration.  This,  in  their  turn,  the  men  re 
fused,  and  announced  their  intention  of  strik 
ing  on  September  24th.  From  Philadelphia  to 
San  Francisco,  from  the  great  lakes  of  the 
north  to  New  Orleans,  all  transport  would 
cease.  The  threat  was  a  serious  one,  and  the 
men  had  chosen  very  cleverly  the  moment  to 
issue  it  so  roughly.  But  nine  weeks  had  to 
elapse  before  the  date  of  the  presidential  elec 
tion,  and  the  conservative  Republicans  would 
have  good  cause  of  quarrel  with  Mr.  Wilson 
if  a  great  domestic  crisis  was  the  final  act  of 
his  administration.  The  men's  leaders  called 
upon  him  to  deal  legislatively  with  the  matter. 
He  moved  with  his  usual  energy,  although  it 
was  not  an  energy  displaying  much  spirit.  On 
August  29th,  he  visited  Congress  in  person  as 
he  had  done  four  months  earlier  to  read  his 
ultimatum  to  Germany.  This  time  he  came 
to  cede  to  an  ultimatum.  He  asked  for  the 
immediate  voting  of  a  measure  which,  in  its 


Re-election  237 


essentials,  would  give  the  railwaymen  a  legal 
day  of  eight  hours.  The  concession  was  pain 
ful,  and  the  long  presidential  speech  setting  it 
forth  was  found  unattractive.  President  Wil 
son  might  have  spoken  more  severely  of  the 
unions  which  refused  arbitration  and  held  their 
country  by  the  throat.  Amongst  the  moral 
ideas  expressed  in  his  message  such  a  judg 
ment  would  have  found  a  fitting  place.  But 
his  words  were  carefully  guarded.  He  blamed 
the  companies  rather  than  the  syndicates.  He 
might  have  recalled  the  fact  that  he  was  not 
unequipped  should  the  country  need  protection 
against  the  blackmail  of  a  corporation.  He 
allowed  the  opportunity  to  pass,  and  his  urgent 
need  of  the  favour  of  the  masses — and  their 
vote — appeared  a  trifle  too  clearly.  On  August 
3 1st  the  measure  was  voted  with  few  modi 
fications.  The  strike  did  not  take  place.  This 
was  the  last  and  the  least  glorious  of  his  vic 
tories. 

Six  years  earlier  this  man  had  been  a  uni 
versity  professor  of  distinction.  Since  then  his 
work  had  been  enormous.  The  people  of  the 
United  States  were  conscious  of  the  control  of 
a  leader,  and  such  control  is  to  their  taste. 
They  do  not  resist  personal  power,  but  rather 
greet  it  with  acclamation.  Some  of  their  "in- 


238  President  Wilson 

tellectuals"  endeavour  to  fight  against  this  na 
tional  impulse,  but  without  effect.  Mr.  George 
E.  Boren  denounced  in  the  Sun  the  "Darwin 
ian  policy/'  introduced  into  the  United  States 
both  in  doctrine  and  in  deed  by  the  Professor- 
President  Wilson.  "Constitutions  are  what 
politicians  make  them,"  he  wrote.  "As  Presi 
dent,  what  did  he  do  with  the  Government  of 
the  United  States?  He  humiliated  it.  He 
made  it  submit  to  the  threat  of  a  strike.  He 
seriously  attacked  the  freedom  of  the  States. 
He  threatened  the  freedom  of  industry  in  mak 
ing  the  central  power  the  purchaser  and  the 
exploiter  of  a  fleet.  The  Constitution,  thus 
understood,  signifies  no  more  than  what  can 
be  demanded  by  public  opinion — at  any  mo 
ment  a  prey  to  heresy  or  hysterics."  Mr. 
George  E.  Boren  spoke  unjustly.  The  Consti 
tution,  as  understood  by  President  Wilson, 
does  not  obey  the  caprice  of  public  opinion.  It 
essentially  obeys  a  leader  who  knows  public 
opinion,  who  interprets  it  with  freedom  and 
gives  it  his  direction.  Such  is  his  doctrine  and 
such  his  practice.  He  has  to  submit,  to  yield, 
to  bend  low  in  his  concessions.  He  has  to  act 
the  part  of  a  demagogue,  a  necessity  under  a 
democratic  regime.  But  he  is  a  dictator  and 
not  a  demagogue. 

Listen  to  his  dictatorial  voice.    On  Septem- 


Re-election  239 


her  2,  1916,  he  delivered  his  first  speech  of 
the  electoral  campaign.  He  recalled  his  eco 
nomic  and  social  work,  the  revision  of  tariffs, 
the  creation  of  a  merchant  marine,  of  a  federal 
bank,  of  a  national  service  for  labour  registra 
tion,  of  federal  regulation  for  the  protection 
of  child  labour.  He  enumerated  with  simplic 
ity  a  succession  of  victories.  The  enumeration 
alone  sufficed  his  pride.  He  then  turned  to 
foreign  problems.  With  feeble  Mexico  he  had 
been  patient.  He  congratulated  himself  upon 
a  policy  he  intended  to  continue.  He  had  pro 
tested  strongly  against  methods  of  war  on 
the  seas  which  had  destroyed  so  many  Ameri 
can  lives.  He  congratulated  himself  on  this" 
policy  also,  which  would  be  continued.  He 
would  fight  to  his  last  breath  against  those 
American  citizens  who,  traitors  to  America, 
remained  loyal  to  their  former  nationality. 
Then  for  the  future.  President  Wilson  dis 
cussed  the  new  problems,  immense  and  limitless 
prospectives  opened  up  by  the  Great  War.  He 
did  not  utter  a  word  which  enabled  any  one  to 
guess  the  future  action  of  the  United  States 
in  that  war.  His  policy  forbad  him.  But  he 
asserted  with  force  that  the  United  States 
would  participate  in  the  peace.  What  did  he 
mean?  To  participate  in  peace  one  must  first 
participate  in  war.  These  were  his  words : 


240  President  Wilson 

"There  must  be  a  just  and  settled  peace,  and 
we  here  in  America  must  contribute  the  full 
force  of  our  enthusiasm  and  of  our  authority 
as  a  nation  to  the  organisation  of  that  peace 
upon  world-wide  foundations  that  cannot 
easily  be  shaken.  No  nation  should  be  forced 
to  take  sides  in  any  quarrel  in  which  its  own 
honour  and  integrity  and  the  fortunes  of  its 
own  people  are  not  involved ;  but  no  nation  can 
any  longer  remain  neutral  as  against  any  wil 
ful  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the  world.  The 
effects  of  war  can  no  longer  be  confined  to  the 
areas  of  battle.  No  nation  stands  wholly  apart 
in  interest  when  the  life  and  interests  of  all 
nations  are  thrown  into  confusion  and  peril. 
If  hopeful  and  generous  enterprise  is  to  be 
renewed,  if  the  healing  and  helpful  arts  of  life 
are  indeed  to  be  revived  when  peace  comes 
again,  a  new  atmosphere  of  justice  and  friend 
ship  must  be  generated  by  means  the  world 
has  never  tried  before.  The  nations  of  the 
world  must  unite  in  joint  guarantees  that  what 
ever  is  done  to  disturb  the  whole  world's  life 
must  first  be  tested  in  the  court  of  the  whole 
world's  opinion  before  it  is  attempted. 

"These  are  the  new  foundations  the  world 
must  build  for  itself,  and  we  must  play  our 
part  in  the  reconstruction,  generously  and 
without  too  much  thought  of  our  separate  in- 


Re-election  241 


terests.  We  must  make  ourselves  ready  to 
play  it  intelligently,  vigorously,  and  well.  .  .  . 
We  can  no  longer  indulge  our  traditional  pro 
vincialism.  We  are  to  play  a  leading  part  in 
the  world  drama  whether  we  wish  it  or  not. 
We  shall  lend,  not  borrow;  act  for  ourselves, 
not  imitate  or  follow;  organise  and  initiate, 
not  peep  about,  merely  to  see  where  we  may 
get  in. 

"This  world  peace  must  bring  its  reward. 
The  fruits  of  the  earth  must  be  raised  and  ex 
changed.  The  United  States  will  do  its  share, 
a  great  share,  in  this  work  of  human  renais 
sance.  Nations  will  have  urgent  needs  which 
must  be  satisfied.  American  exporters  will  be 
given  assistance.  If  any  portion  of  the  laws 
directed  against  trusts  hinder  the  combination 
of  these  traders  the  laws  will  be  revised.  Their 
foreign  enterprises  will  not  be  hindered. 

"The  field  will  be  free,  the  instrumentalities 
at  hand.  .  .  .  The  Government  of  the  United 
States  will  insist  upon  the  maintenance 
throughout  the  world  of  conditions  of  fairness 
and  of  evenhanded  justice  in  the  commercial 
dealings  of  the  nations."  The  President  fin 
ished  his  speech  with  a  moving  peroration : 

"The  day  of  Little  Americanism  with  its 
narrow  horizons  ...  its  methods  of  'protec 
tion/  is  past  and  gone.  ...  A  day  of  enter- 


242  President  Wilson 

prise  has  at  last  dawned  for  the  United  States, 
whose  field  is  the  wide  world.  .  .  .  We  hope  to 
see  the  stimulus  of  that  new  day  draw  all 
America,  the  republics  of  both  continents,  on  to 
a  new  life  and  energy  and  initiative  in  the 
great  affairs  of  peace.  We  are  Americans  for 
Big  America,  and  rejoice  to  look  forward  to 
the  days  in  which  America  shall  strive  to  stir 
the  world  without  irritating  it  or  drawing  it 
on  to  new  antagonisms.  .  .  .  Upon  this  rec 
ord  and  in  the  faith  of  this  purpose  we  go  to 
the  country." 

Election  day  drew  near.  Who  would  be  suc 
cessful?  Would  Wilson  gain  the  day?  Noth 
ing  was  certain.  Wilson's  personal  position 
was  strong,  but  his  electoral  difficulties  were 
numerous.  In  1912  he  succeeded,  owing  to  the 
division  of  his  opponents'  party.  Had  the 
votes  obtained  by  the  Progressist  Roosevelt 
and  the  Republican  Taft  been  massed  against 
him  he  would  have  been  in  a  minority  of 
1,300,000.  But  now  the  Progressives  and  Re 
publicans  had  united.  Hughes,  a  former  Gov 
ernor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  one  of  the 
nine  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  a  capable 
man  but  without  magnetism,  was  their  candi 
date.  Wilson  had  first  to  turn  over  1,300,000 
votes.  It  was  a  large  number,  and  even  the 


Re-election  243 


most  confident  had  their  doubts.  The  war  no 
longer  pre-occupied  the  electorate  which  was 
solely  interested  in  the  speeches  and  personali 
ties  of  Wilson  and  Hughes.  Every  one  was 
excited  by  the  race  between  the  two  men. 

A  glance  must  be  taken  of  the  President  at 
home.  Miss  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  a  journalist  of 
much  ability,  has  given  us  the  opportunity. 
We  see  him  in  his  country  house  at  Shadow 
Lawn.  He  meets  his  visitor  with  a  hearty 
welcome ;  he  is  amiable  because  he  has  decided 
to  be  amiable.  "A  President  certainly,  always 
the  President,  but  also  a  gentleman  who,  hav 
ing  invited  you  to  his  table,  treats  you  as  a 
friend,  interests  himself  in  the  things  you  are 
interested  in,  and  has  the  frank  goodwill  not 
to  speak  to  you  but  to  gossip  with  you."  He 
touches  upon  political  questions  if  the  visitor 
asks  him,  but  his  comment  is  one  of  detach 
ment.  He  is  President,  he  governs  according 
to  his  conscience.  If  he  is  re-elected  he  will 
do  his  best.  If  he  is  not  re-elected  he  will  re 
turn  to  his  university  life.  He  stands  ready 
to  serve,  and  he  awaits  the  call.  Miss  Tarbell 
asks  him  what  he  reads. 

"For  fourteen  years  I  have  not  read  a  seri 
ous  book/'  he  answers.  "Detective  stories  are 
the  only  ones  which  hold  me.  There  are  too 


244  President  Wilson 

many  problems  in  modern  novels.  I  have 
enough  problems.  Sometimes  I  read  a  little 
verse,  and  re-open  one  of  my  favourite  poets. 
There  are  passages  in  Tennyson  which  have 
been  of  great  help  to  me.  I  do  not  know  of 
any  one  who  has  expounded  better  than  Tenny 
son  the  theory  of  popular  government.  Do 
you  remember  these  lines? 

A  nation  yet,  the  rulers  and  the  ruled, 
Some  sense  of  duty,  something  of  a  faith, 
Some  reverence  for  the  laws  ourselves  have  made, 
Some  patient  force  to  change  them  when  we  will, 
Some  civic  manhood  firm  against  the  crowd. 

"Firm  against  the  crowd!'9  repeated  the 
President.  "Firm  against  the  crowd,  that  is 
the  difficulty,  the  danger." 

He  recalled  to  his  interviewer  the  resistance 
he  had  been  obliged  to  put  up  against  certain 
fanatical  excitements.  But  the  recollections 
were  neither  bitter  nor  sad.  The  President 
had  no  doubt  of  the  solidarity  of  agreement 
which  united  him  to  his  people. 

"I  do  not  think  there  is  a  man  living  more 
soaked  in  American  thought  than  I  am.  I 
have  lived  with  it  all  my  life.  When  I  try  to 
disentangle  the  ideas  of  the  people  and  en 
deavour  to  express  them  if  at  first  there  is  dis 
accord  I  am  not  astonished.  I  have  firm  con 
fidence  that  their  ideas  will  rally  to  mine.  I 


Re-election  245 

much  prefer  a  decision  based  upon  reflection 
to  one  founded  in  haste." 

We  will  follow  the  subject  of  our  study  to 
one  of  those  meetings  where  thousands  of  audi 
tors  listened  with  astonishing  silence  and  self- 
control  to  the  presidential  candidates.  On  Oc 
tober  26,  1916,  Wilson  spoke  at  Cincinnati. 
He  attacked  the  banking  interests,  whose  mo 
nopoly  had  been  overthrown  by  the  Federal 
Bank  he  had  instituted. 

"Have  we  freed  ourselves/1  he  demanded, 
"in  order  that  newcomers  should  impertinently 
become  our  masters?  I  will  not  undertake  to 
direct  your  affairs,  and  you  know " 

"You  do  it  very  well,"  cried  the  crowd  with 
cheers. 

"No,  dear  citizens,"  he  answered,  "I  am 
only  trying  to  understand  what  you  wish  me 
to  do,  and  that  I  do." 

How  suddenly  this  professor  has  left  the 
heights !  A  moment  ago  he  was  reciting  Ten 
nyson  to  us.  We  were  shadowed  by  an  Ox 
ford.  Now  we  have  been  abruptly  transported 
to  a  Cincinnati,  an  Ohio. 

Another  day  he  spoke  at  Omaha  in  Ne 
braska.  The  vanished  Indians  have  left  be 
hind  nothing  but  the  sounds  of  their  musical 
language.  Nebraska  is  one  of  the  central 


246  President  Wilson 

states,  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  being  at 
equal  distance.  It  is  almost  wholly  an  agri 
cultural  state,  the  population  being  indifferent 
to  everything  outside  the  borders  of  its  own 
territory.  President  Wilson  was  welcomed  at 
Omaha.  He  had  maintained  peace.  That  was 
all  they  knew,  but  it  was  enough  to  make  them 
love  and  cherish  him.  He  received  a  great  re 
ception,  which  had  all  the  signs  of  a  pacifist 
manifestation. 

"He  has  kept  us  out  of  war !"  cried  somebody 
in  the  crowd. 

It  was  an  agreeable  cry,  which  others  re 
peated. 

"Who  has  saved  the  country?'*  shouted  an 
other. 

"Wilson !"  replied  the  crowd  with  one  voice. 

"Hurrah  for  the  peacemaker." 

President  Wilson  knew  that  it  was  to  his  ad 
vantage  that  the  mob  should  credit  him  with 
the  preservation  of  peace.  But  he  knew  that 
it  would  be  hardly  possible  to  maintain  peace 
longer.  His  position  was  delicate.  To  exploit 
this  credit  would  be  a  powerful  but  dishonest 
method  towards  immediate  success.  He  be 
haved,  on  the  contrary,  like  an  honest  man, 
considering  that  in  such  a  case  honesty  was  the 
best  line  his  policy  could  pursue.  He  warned 
the  over-happy  crowds  on  every  occasion.  He 


Re-election  247 


had  indeed  maintained  peace.  He  accepted 
their  thanks,  for  he  maintained  it  with  much 
trouble.  But  this  trouble  was  in  itself  a  sign 
of  peril,  and  the  people  of  the  United  States 
must  hold  themselves  ready  against  the  con 
tinuous  menace  of  war,  a  menace  which  stead 
ily  became  more  threatening.  More  than  once 
he  spoke  to  this  effect. 

The  reception  at  Omaha  disquieted  him, 
and  he  replied  to  the  pacifist  manifestation  with 
the  most  ardent  and  the  most  energetic  speech 
he  had  delivered.  It  was  a  speech  of  warning. 
At  first  he  recalled  to  the  people  of  Nebraska 
the  rude  history  of  their  early  origins,  the  land 
conquered  from  the  Indians,  occupied  and 
cleared  by  armed  cultivators.  Then,  with  a 
swift  transition,  he  introduced  the  subject  of 
the  war. 

"There  is  as  much  combativeness  in  Amer 
ica  as  in  any  other  nation  of  the  world. 

"We  have  a  programme  for  our  domestic 
life  in  America,  and  we  will  not  forget  it.  But 
we  have  never  formulated  with  the  desired 
clearness  our  programme  for  things  outside 
America,  for  the  part  she  must  play  in  the 
world.  We  must  imperatively  see  to  this  with 
out  delay. 

"We  have  never  forgotten,  as  you  know, 
and  we  have  always  treated  his  words  with 


248  President  Wilson 

respect,  the  advice  of  our  great  Washington. 
He  told  us  to  keep  free  of  compromising  for 
eign  affairs.  He  meant  by  that,  if  I  under 
stand  him  well,  that  we  must  not  become  en 
tangled  in  the  ambitions  and  secret  schemes 
of  other  nations.  But  he  did  not  wish  to  say 
— and  here  I  must  be  permitted  to  risk  an  in 
terpretation  of  the  words  of  this  great  man — 
that  we  ought  to  evade  the  mutual  agreements 
of  the  world.  For  we  are  part  of  the  world, 
and  cannot  be  indifferent  towards  anything 
that  takes  place  in  it. 

"The  whole  world  knows  this.  We  are 
ready  to  draw  upon  our  forces  without  reserve 
to  preserve  peace  in  the  interests  of  humanity. 
What  troubles  the  whole  world  concerns  the 
whole  world.  Our  duty  is  to  place  all  our 
strength  at  the  service  of  a  League  of  Nations 
instituted  to  repress  any  one  endeavouring  to 
disturb  peace. 

"If  any  one  asks  you,  'Are  you  ready  to 
fight?'  answer,  'Yes,  I  am  ready  to  fight  for  a 
cause  worth  fighting  for/  You  are  not  going 
to  fight  over  any  paltry  trouble.  You  are  only 
interested  in  a  single  quarrel — that  which  con 
cerns  the  Rights  of  Man.  Human  blood  must 
be  spilt,  if  necessary,  but  it  must  be  spilt  for 
a  noble  cause.  The  title  deeds  of  liberty  are 
sealed  with  the  blood  of  free  men." 


Re-election  249 


The  President  spoke  with  warmth,  and  the 
people  of  Nebraska  cheered  him,  according  to 
the  New  York  Tribune,  at  each  sentence.  Did 
these  distant  inhabitants  understand  him?  It 
is  not  certain.  But  could  the  President,  with 
out  creating  panic,  have  said  more?  He  was 
not  able. 

He  warned  the  pacifists.  More  categorically 
he  cautioned  the  German-Americans.  The 
president  of  a  league  which  favoured  their 
ideas  sent  him  a  telegram. 

"Again  we  greet  you  with  popular  disap 
proval  of  your  pro-British  policies.  Your  fail 
ure  to  secure  compliance  with  all  American 
rights,  your  leniency  towards  the  British  Em 
pire,  your  approval  of  war  loans  and  ammuni 
tion  traffic,  are  the  issues  of  this  campaign." 

The  answer  was  immediate.  And  with  it 
was  published  the  provocatory  telegram. 

"Your  telegram  received.  Would  feel  deeply  morti 
fied  to  have  you,  or  anybody  like  you,  voting  for  me. 
Since  you  have  access  to  many  disloyal  Americans,  and 
I  have  not,  I  will  ask  you  to  convey  this  message  to 
them. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

On  the  morning  of  November  7th  the  result 
was  in  doubt.  That  was  not  surprising  in  so 
disputable  and  difficult  an  election.  What  was 
surprising,  what  in  fact  was  laughable  (if  the 


250  President  Wilson 

phrase  be  permitted  concerning  so  serious  a 
matter),  were  the  shabby  tricks  and  the  un- 
seasonableness  of  the  difficulties.  In  Novem 
ber,  1916,  there  was  but  one  question  for  the 
United  States  to  decide.  That  question  was 
the  Great  War.  Would  they  be  actors  or  spec 
tators?  This  was  the  thought  in  the  chancel 
lories  of  Europe  and  at  the  White  House.  But 
for  the  people  of  the  United  States  the  prob 
lem  was  too  complex.  The  information  at 
hand  was  too  immense  and  yet  too  vague.  The 
people,  not  knowing,  said  nothing.  The  two 
candidates  did  not  ask  for  a  mandate,  and  no 
body  attempted  to  dictate  one.  The  only  ques 
tion  which  mattered  was  not  asked.  Nothing 
else  was  substituted.  In  America  as  in  Eu 
rope  the  catastrophe  had  suspended  activity. 
Thus  the  double  campaigns  of  Wilson  and 
Hughes  were  characterised  by  an  entire  ab 
sence  of  programmes.  Both  men  exhibited 
themselves  to  the  electors  and  spoke.  But  they 
proposed  no  reform  and  no  decision.  They 
were  empty  handed.  And  in  such  a  vacuum 
how  could  the  chances  be  measured,  or  the  re 
sult  foretold?  How  were  the  German- Ameri 
cans  going  to  cast  their  votes  ?  Vain  question. 
The  German-Americans,  equally  affronted  by 
both  candidates,  would  vote  according  to 
chance  local  intrigue.  The  feminine  vote 


Re-election  251 


would  participate  for  the  first  time  in  a  presi 
dential  election  to  the  tune  of  three  or  four 
millions.  To  whom  would  the  women  give 
preference?  Vain  question.  The  votes  of  the 
women  will  follow  those  of  the  men  in  this  dull 
contest.  The  result  alone  could  give  the 
answer. 

It  had  to  be  waited  for.  The  scrutiny  was 
as  slow  to  unravel  as  it  was  difficult  to  antici 
pate.  The  first  returns  were  deceptive.  The 
two  great  eastern  states,  Pennsylvania  and 
New  York,  voted  as  a  whole  against  Wilson. 
They  elected  82  delegates.  Illinois  followed 
them  with  29.  Wilson  was  thus  handicapped 
from  the  start  by  in  votes.  The  Republican 
press  in  New  York  lit  the  beacon  fires  of  vic 
tory  and  announced  in  giant  headlines : 

Hughes  elected  with  290  votes. 
Possibly  312.     7  doubtful  States. 

The  news  reached  Europe,  and  for  twenty- 
four  hours  Wilson  was  believed  to  have  been 
defeated.  He  was  then  able  to  count  his  real 
friends,  and  the  list  was  not  a  long  one.  But, 
during  the  afternoon  of  November  8th,  there 
was  a  new  atmosphere  of  doubt.  Feeble  but 
numerous  majorities  in  the  Western  and 
Southern  States  reversed  the  prognostics.  By 
the  evening  of  the  loth  Wilson  had  received 


252  President  Wilson 

251  votes,  Hughes  242.  The  total  number  of 
votes  being  531,  at  least  266  were  necessary 
for  election.  Wilson  still  had  a  chance.  By 
the  evening  of  the  nth  he  held  it,  although  al 
ways  doubtfully.  The  results  from  California 
and  Minnesota  remained  to  be  collected,  but 
as  the  returns  were  disputed  the  counting  could 
not  be  completed.  California  had  900,000 
electors.  A  democratic  majority  of  3,700  was 
worth  13  delegates  to  Wilson.  Minnesota  had 
360,000  electors.  A  majority  of  500  votes 
would  give  Wilson  12  delegates. 

The  election  finished.  Wilson  received  276 
electoral  votes;  Hughes  255.  Counted  in  pop 
ular  votes,  the  figures  were  as  follows : 

Wilson   (Democratic) 9,116,296 

Hughes  (Republican) 8,547,474 

Benson  (Socialist) 750,000 

Various  235,206 

President  Wilson  had  thus  obtained  2,800,- 
ooo  votes  more  than  at  his  first  election.  This 
gain  was  not  entirely  owing  to  a  turn-over  of 
votes.  New  electors  were  numerous,  the  vot 
ing  body  having  been  increased  by  three  and 
one-half  millions  in  four  years. 

The  figures  were  much  discussed  in  order  to 
arrive  at  the  significance  of  the  votes.  There 
was  nothing  to  find.  Infinitely  small  causes  ap- 


Re-election  253 


peared  to  have  determined  a  majority  in  one 
place  and  another. 

If  any  feeling  had  influenced  the  issue  it  was 
without  doubt  the  moderation  and  prudence 
of  the  masses.  They  knew  Wilson.  He  had 
governed  without  calamity  in  a  period  of  ca 
lamity.  He  had  tolerably  well  kept  his  word. 
They  would  keep  him.  "Let  us  keep  this 
proven  man!"  had  been  one  of  the  most  con 
vincing  cries  of  the  election. 

The  "chosen  man"  had  now  before  him  four 
years  of  supreme  magistrature — and  the  last 
four.  Thus  liberated  from  electoral  preoccu 
pations  he  was  free  to  devote  himself  exclu 
sively  to  the  good  of  his  country,  and,  as  the 
old  writers  used  to  say,  to  its  proper  glory. 
How  strangely  history  forms  itself.  This  ab 
solute  rule  which  limits  the  presidential  power 
to  two  terms  of  office  had  its  origin  in  the  vol 
untary  resignation  of  Jefferson.  The  old 
democrat  wished  to  prevent  by  the  example  he 
gave  any  ulterior  return  to  personal  power. 
Assuredly  he  did  not  foresee  that  such  limita 
tion  would  one  day  have  for  its  effect  the  in 
crease  of  presidential  power,  would  render  it 
for  a  short  but  sufficient  period  even  dicta 
torial. 


XI— War 


WE  now  reach  the  end.    The  events 
we    are    relating   extend   to    the 
present  day.     They  belong  more 
to  the  present  than  to  the  past, 
and  the  time  has  not  yet  come  when  it  will  be 
possible  to  deal  with  them  as  a  whole. 

What  will  the  new  President  do?  Will  he 
intervene?  A  strong  trend  of  opinion  desired 
it,  and  wished  him  to  propose  mediation.  The 
President  had  his  own  serious  reasons  for  lis 
tening  to  this  popular  demand.  He  could  not 
ignore  that  the  Germans  were  constructing  new 
submarines,  and  preparing  for  a  resumption  of 
their  submarine  war.  The  third  spring  would 
bring  a  fresh  crisis.  This  would  be  the  third, 
and  the  President  believed  it  would  be  decisive, 
making  war  inevitable.  But  he  did  not  wish 
war  to  surprise  him.  It  was  coming,  and  he 
saw  it  coming.  So  he  prepared  to  meet  the 
cataclysm  adroitly.  His  first  step  was  an  ap 
peal  for  peace,  a  demand  to  the  belligerents  to 
reveal  their  intentions  and  aims.  The  Presi 
dent  considered  the  terms  of  this  appeal,  and, 
despite  his  usual  habit  of  secrecy,  the  news 

254 


War  255 

spread.  On  November  23rd  his  project  was 
known  at  Berne,  Vienna,  and  Berlin.  Active 
discussion  ensued.  Washington  issued  an  of 
ficial  denial  which  scarcely  calmed  the  rumour. 
On  November  26th  Ambassador  Gerard  was  at 
Washington.  He  saw  the  President,  dined 
with  Ambassador  Bernstorff  and  immediately 
returned  to  Berlin.  There,  speaking  at  a  ban 
quet,  he  allowed  it  to  be  understood  in  guarded 
words  that  a  resumption  of  submarine  warfare 
would  interrupt  the  good  relations  existing  be 
tween  Germany  and  the  United  States.  De 
cember  had  been  reached.  The  President  was 
continuously  at  work.  Undoubtedly  his  plan 
was  to  publish  a  pacific  appeal  at  the  moment 
of  the  Christmas  festival.  But  another  ru 
mour — springing  from  Vienna  or  Berlin — had 
been  placed  in  circulation.  A  mysterious  event 
was  to  take  place.  The  Reichstag  was  sum 
moned  for  December  I2th,  and  a  speech  from 
the  Chancellor  was  promised.  On  the  day  an 
nounced  he  spoke,  and  launched  an  appeal  for 
peace. 

Was  it  by  chance  ?  Hardly.  This  idea  had 
been  ripening  for  a  long  while  in  America,  and 
Bethmann-Hollweg  seized  hold  of  it  at  the 
very  moment  another  statesman  was  about  to 
make  it  his  own.  The  tactics  were  clever.  The 
German  Chancellory  did  not  wish  another  to 


256  President  Wilson 

have  the  benefit  of  so  fine  an  attitude.  Well 
acquainted  with  the  deeds  in  preparation  for 
the  following  April  it  made  a  wily  move  to 
excuse  the  brutalities  which  would  ensue.  The 
appeal  was  addressed  to  neutral  states.  "We 
are  persuaded  that  the  propositions  we  offer, 
which  aim  at  the  certainty  of  the  future  exist 
ence,  honour,  and  development  of  our  nation, 
may  well  serve  as  the  foundation  of  a  durable 
peace.  If,  in  spite  of  this  offer  of  peace  and 
conciliation,  the  fight  must  continue,  the  four 
Allied  Powers  are  determined  to  pursue  it  to  a 
victorious  conclusion,  solemnly,  before  human 
ity  and  before  history,  declining  all  responsi 
bility/' 

President  Wilson  had  been  decidedly 
thwarted.  Once  again  Prussia  had  been  the 
first  to  mobilise,  and,  by  her  quickness  of  move 
ment,  had  disconcerted  her  adversary.  What 
was  he  to  do?  Could  he  renounce  the  whole 
project  because  he  had  lost  the  first  move  ?  He 
persisted  with  his  plan,  and  on  December  i8th 
published  the  appeal  he  had  had  in  preparation. 

This  appeal  was  extremely  prudent.  Presi 
dent  Wilson  declined  "to  propose  peace,  even 
to  offer  mediation."  He  suggested  only  "that 
some  soundings  might  be  taken,  so  that  it  could 
be  discovered  how  far  we  are  from  that  haven 
of  peace  towards  which  all  humanity  yearns 


War  257 

with  an  intense  and  gathering  force."  He  in 
dicated  certain  points  upon  which  the  belliger 
ents  appeared  to  be  in  agreement,  and  also  the 
necessity  of  a  liberal,  durable,  and  guaranteed 
peace.  He  also  announced,  and  these  words 
were  the  most  significant  in  his  appeal,  that  if 
the  war  continued  "the  situation  of  neutral 
nations,  already  very  difficult,  would  become 
wholly  impossible." 

At  first  sight  the  coincidence  of  the  two 
notes  was  astonishing.  Germany  had  ap 
pealed  to  the  neutrals.  The  most  powerful  of 
the  neutral  states  appeared  to  have  replied  to 
her  appeal.  Some  people  even  thought  that 
President  Wilson,  in  agreement  with  Germany, 
was  busying  himself  to  impose  the  peace  she 
was  asking  for.  There  was  certainly  some  ap 
pearance  of  it. 

The  Entente  answered  with  courtesy,  and 
in  detail.  The  Central  Empires  replied  in  ten 
lines  with  transparent  disdain.  Was  this  the 
end?  Could  there  be  no  other  result  to  docu 
ments  which  had  provoked  such  mixed  feelings 
of  anger,  hope,  and  expectation?  The  Presi 
dent  pursued  his  way.  On  January  21,  1917, 
he  appeared  in  the  Senate  and  read  a  long  mes 
sage  which  astonished  profoundly  both  chan 
cellories  and  nations.  Setting  aside  the  con 
tingencies  of  war  and  peace,  the  President  out- 


258  President  Wilson 

lined  the  existence  of  a  Society  of  Nations, 
which,  he  asserted,  the  people  of  the  United 
States  had  as  a  mission  to  establish.  It  was 
not  the  first  time  he  had  dealt  with  the  subject, 
which  he  had  referred  to  in  a  speech  upon  a 
League  to  enforce  Peace  made  before  Con 
gress  on  May  27,  1916,  He  now  developed 
these  principles,  and  the  text  of  his  message 
must  be  given  in  full. 

PRESIDENT    WILSON'S    MESSAGE    TO   THE 

AMERICAN  CONGRESS 
COMMUNICATED   TO    THE    BELLIGERENT    STATES 

(Known  as  the  Note  of  January  22, 1917) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Senate, 

On  the  i8th  of  December  last  I  addressed 
an  identic  Note  to  the  Governments  of  the  na 
tions  now  at  war  requesting  them  to  state, 
more  definitely  than  they  had  yet  been  by  either 
group  of  belligerents,  the  terms  upon  which 
they  would  deem  it  possible  to  make  peace. 

I  spoke  on  behalf  of  humanity  and  of  the 
rights  of  all  neutral  nations  like  our  own,  many 
of  whose  most  vital  interests  the  war  puts  in 
constant  jeopardy. 

The  Central  Powers  united  in  a  reply  which 
stated  merely  that  they  were  ready  to  meet 


War  259 

their    antagonists    in    conference    to    discuss 
terms  of  peace. 

The  Entente  Powers  have  replied  much  more 
definitely,  and  have  stated,  in  general  terms 
indeed,  but  with  sufficient  definiteness  to  imply 
details,  the  arrangements,  guarantees,  and  acts 
of  reparation  which  they  deem  to  be  the  indis 
pensable  conditions  of  a  satisfactory  settle 
ment. 

We  are  much  nearer  a  definite  discussion  of 
the  peace  which  shall  end  the  present  war. 
We  are  that  much  nearer  the  discussion  of  the 
international  concert  which  must  thereafter 
hold  the  world  at  peace.  In  every  discussion 
of  the  peace  that  must  end  this  war  it  is  taken 
for  granted  that  peace  must  be  followed  by  a 
definite  concert  of  the  Powers  which  will  make 
it  virtually  impossible  that  any  such  catastro 
phe  should  ever  overwhelm  us  again.  Every 
lover  of  mankind,  every  sane  and  thoughtful 
man,  must  take  that  for  granted. 

I  have  sought  this  opportunity  to  address 
you  because  I  thought  that  I  owed  it  to  you, 
as  the  council  associated  with  me  in  the  final 
determination  of  our  international  obligations, 
to  disclose  to  you  without  reserve  the  thought 
and  purpose  that  have  been  taking  form  in  my 
mind  with  regard  to  the  duty  of  our  Govern 
ment  in  the  days  to  come,  when  it  will  be  nee- 


260  President  Wilson 

essary  to  lay  afresh  and  upon  a  new  plan  the 
foundations  of  peace  among  the  nations. 

It  is  inconceivable  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States  should  play  no  part  in  that  great 
enterprise.  To  take  part  in  such  a  service  will 
be  the  opportunity  for  which  they  have  sought 
to  prepare  themselves  by  the  very  principles 
and  purposes  of  their  polity  and  the  approved 
practices  of  their  Government  ever  since  the 
days  when  they  set  up  a  new  nation  in  the  high 
and  honourable  hope  that  it  might  in  all  that 
it  was  and  did  show  mankind  the  way  to  lib 
erty.  They  cannot  in  honour  withhold  the 
service  to  which  they  are  now  about  to  be  chal 
lenged.  They  do  not  wish  to  withhold  it.  But 
they  owe  it  to  themselves  and  to  the  other  na 
tions  of  the  world  to  state  the  conditions  under 
which  they  will  feel  free  to  render  it. 

That  service  is  nothing  less  than  this:  To 
add  their  authority  and  their  power  to  the  au 
thority  and  force  of  other  nations  to  guaran 
tee  peace  and  justice  throughout  the  world. 
Such  a  settlement  cannot  now  be  long  post 
poned.  It  is  right  that  before  it  comes  this 
Government  should  frankly  formulate  the  con 
ditions  upon  which  it  would  feel  justified  in 
asking  our  people  to  approve  its  formal  and 
solemn  adherence  to  a  league  for  peace.  I  am 
here  to  attempt  to  state  those  conditions. 


War  261 

The  present  war  must  first  be  ended,  but  we 
owe  it  to  candour  and  to  a  just  regard  for  the 
opinion  of  mankind  to  say  that,  so  far  as  our 
participation  in  guarantees  of  future  peace  is 
concerned,  it  makes  a  great  deal  of  difference 
in  what  way  and  upon  what  terms  it  is  ended. 

The  treaties  and  agreements  which  bring  it 
to  an  end  must  embody  terms  that  will  create 
a  peace  that  is  worth  guaranteeing  and  pre 
serving,  a  peace  that  will  win  the  approval  of 
mankind,  not  merely  a  peace  that  will  serve  the 
several  interests  and  immediate  aims  of  the  na 
tions  engaged. 

We  shall  have  no  voice  in  determining  what 
those  terms  shall  be,  but  we  shall,  I  feel  sure, 
have  a  voice  in  determining  whether  they  shall 
be  made  lasting  or  not  by  the  guarantees  of  a 
universal  covenant;  and  our  judgment  upon 
what  is  fundamental  and  essential  as  a  condi 
tion  precedent  to  permanency  should  be  spoken 
now,  not  afterwards,  when  it  may  be  too  late. 

No  covenant  of  co-operative  peace  that  does 
not  include  the  peoples  of  the  New  World  can 
suffice  to  keep  the  future  safe  against  war;  and 
yet  there  is  only  one  sort  of  peace  that  the  peo 
ples  of  America  could  join  in  guaranteeing. 
The  elements  of  that  peace  must  be  elements 
that  engage  the  confidence  and  satisfy  the 
principles  of  the  American  Government,  ele- 


262  President  Wilson 

merits  consistent  with  the  political  faith  and 
the  practical  convictions  which  the  peoples  of 
America  have  once  for  all  embraced  and  un 
dertaken  to  defend. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  any  American 
Government  would  throw  any  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  any  terms  of  peace  the  Governments 
now  at  war  might  agree  upon,  or  seek  to  upset 
them  when  made,  whatever  they  might  be.  I 
only  take  it  for  granted  that  mere  terms  of 
peace  between  the  belligerents  will  not  satisfy 
even  the  belligerents  themselves.  Mere  agree 
ments  may  not  make  peace  secure. 

It  will  be  absolutely  necessary  that  a  force 
be  created  as  a  guarantor  of  the  permanency  of 
the  settlement  so  much  greater  than  the  force 
of  any  nation  now  engaged  or  any  alliance 
hitherto  formed  or  projected,  that  no  nation, 
no  probable  combination  of  nations,  could  face 
or  withstand  it.  If  the  peace  presently  to  be 
made  is  to  endure,  it  must  be  a  peace  made 
secure  by  the  organised  major  force  of  man 
kind. 

The  terms  of  the  immediate  peace  agreed 
upon  will  determine  whether  it  is  a  peace  for 
which  such  a  guarantee  can  be  secured.  The 
question  upon  which  the  whole  future  peace 
and  policy  of  the  world  depends  is  this :  Is  the 
present  a  struggle  for  a  just  and  secure  peace 


War  263 

or  only  for  a  new  balance  of  power?  If  it  be 
only  a  struggle  for  a  new  balance  of  power, 
who  will  guarantee,  who  can  guarantee,  the 
stable  equilibrium  of  the  new  arrangement? 
Only  a  tranquil  Europe  can  be  a  stable  Europe. 
There  must  be,  not  a  balance  of  power,  but  a 
community  of  power;  not  organised  rivalries, 
but  an  organised  common  peace. 

Fortunately,  we  have  received  very  explicit 
assurances  on  this  point. 

The  statesmen  of  both  of  the  groups  of  na 
tions  now  arrayed  against  one  another  have 
said,  in  terms  that  could  not  be  misinterpreted, 
that  it  was  no  part  of  the  purpose  they  had  in 
mind  to  crush  their  antagonists.  But  the  im 
plications  of  these  assurances  may  not  be 
equally  clear  to  all — may  not  be  the  same  on 
both  sides  of  the  water.  I  think  it  will  be  serv 
iceable  if  I  attempt  to  set  forth  what  we  un 
derstand  them  to  be. 

They  imply,  first  of  all,  that  it  must  be  a 
peace  without  victory. 

I  beg  that  I  may  be  permitted  to  put  my  own 
interpretation  upon  it,  and  that  it  may  be  un 
derstood  that  no  other  interpretation  was  in 
my  thought.  I  am  seeking  only  to  face  reali 
ties,  and  to  face  them  without  soft  conceal 
ments. 

Victory  would  mean  peace  forced  upon  the 


264  President  Wilson 

loser,  a  victor's  terms  imposed  upon  the  van 
quished.  It  would  be  accepted  in  humiliation, 
under  duress,  at  intolerable  sacrifice,  and  would 
leave  a  sting,  a  resentment,  a  bitter  memory 
upon  which  terms  of  peace  would  rest,  not  per 
manently,  but  only  as  upon  quicksand.  Only  a 
peace  between  equals  can  last — only  a  peace 
the  very  principle  of  which  is  equality  and  a 
common  participation  in  a  common  benefit. 
The  right  state  of  mind,  the  right  feeling  be 
tween  nations,  is  as  necessary  for  a  lasting 
peace  as  is  the  just  settlement  of  vexed  ques 
tions  of  territory  or  of  racial  and  national 
allegiance. 

The  equality  of  nations  upon  which  peace 
must  be  founded,  if  it  is  to  last,  must  be  an 
equality  of  rights;  the  guarantees  exchanged 
must  neither  recognise  nor  imply  a  difference 
between  big  nations  and  small,  between  those 
that  are  powerful  and  those  that  are  weak. 
Right  must  be  based  upon  the  common 
strength,  not  upon  the  individual  strength,  of 
the  nations  upon  whose  concert  peace  will 
depend. 

Equality  of  territory  or  of  resources  there, 
of  course,  cannot  be,  nor  any  sort  of  equality 
not  gained  in  the  ordinary  peaceful  and  legiti 
mate  development  of  the  peoples  themselves. 
But  no  one  asks  or  expects  anything  more  than 


War  265 

an  equality  of  rights.  Mankind  is  looking  now 
for  freedom  of  life,  not  for  equipoises  of 
power. 

And  there  is  a  deeper  thing  involved  than 
even  equality  of  right  among  organised  na 
tions. 

No  peace  can  last,  or  ought  to  last,  which 
does  not  recognise  and  accept  the  principle  that 
Governments  derive  all  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  that  no  right 
anywhere  exists  to  hand  peoples  about  from 
potentate  to  potentate  as  if  they  were  prop 
erty. 

I  take  it  for  granted,  for  instance,  if  I  may 
venture  upon  a  single  example,  that  statesmen 
everywhere  are  agreed  that  there  should  be  a 
united,  independent,  and  autonomous  Poland, 
and  that  henceforth  inviolable  security  of  life, 
of  worship,  and  of  industrial  and  social  de 
velopment  should  be  guaranteed  to  all  peoples 
who  have  lived  hitherto  under  the  power  of 
Governments  devoted  to  a  faith  and  purpose 
hostile  to  their  own. 

I  speak  of  this,  not  because  of  any  desire  to 
exalt  an  abstract  political  principle  which  has 
always  been  held  very  dear  by  those  who  have 
sought  to  build  up  liberty  in  America,  but  for 
the  same  reason  that  I  have  spoken  of  the  other 
conditions  of  peace  which  seem  to  me  clearly 


266  President  Wilson 

indispensable — because  I  wish  frankly  to  un 
cover  realities. 

Any  peace  which  does  not  recognise  and  ac 
cept  this  principle  will  inevitably  be  upset.  It 
will  not  rest  upon  the  affections  or  the  convic 
tions  of  mankind.  The  ferment  of  spirit  of 
whole  populations  will  fight  subtly  and  con 
stantly  against  it,  and  all  the  world  will  sym 
pathise.  The  world  can  be  at  peace  only  if  its 
life  is  stable,  and  there  can  be  no  stability 
where  the  will  is  in  rebellion,  where  there  is 
not  tranquillity  of  spirit  and  a  sense  of  justice, 
of  freedom,  and  of  right. 

So  far  as  practicable,  moreover,  every  great 
people  now  struggling  towards  a  full  develop 
ment  of  its  resources  and  of  its  powers  should 
be  assured  a  direct  outlet  to  the  great  highways 
of  the  seas. 

Where  this  cannot  be  done  by  the  cession  of 
territory,  it  no  doubt  can  be  done  by  the  neu 
tralisation  of  direct  rights  of  way  under  the 
general  guarantee  which  will  assure  the  peace 
itself.  With  a  right  comity  of  arrangement  no 
nation  need  be  shut  away  from  free  access  to 
the  open  paths  of  the  world's  commerce. 

And  the  paths  of  the  sea  must  alike  in  law 
and  in  fact  be  free.  The  freedom  of  the  seas 
is  the  sine  qua  non  of  peace,  equality,  and  co 
operation. 


War  267 

No  doubt  a  somewhat  radical  reconsider 
ation  of  many  of  the  rules  of  international 
practice  hitherto  thought  to  be  established  may 
be  necessary  in  order  to  make  the  seas  indeed 
free  and  common  in  practically  all  circum 
stances  for  the  use  of  mankind;  but  the  motive 
for  such  changes  is  convincing  and  impelling. 
There  can  be  no  trust  or  intimacy  between  the 
peoples  of  the  world  without  them.  The  free, 
constant,  unthreatened  intercourse  of  nations 
is  an  essential  part  of  the  process  of  peace  and 
of  development.  It  need  not  be  difficult  either 
to  define  or  to  secure  the  freedom  of  the  seas 
if  the  Governments  of  the  world  sincerely  de 
sire  to  come  to  an  agreement  concerning  it. 

It  is  a  problem  closely  connected  with  the 
limitation  of  naval  armaments  and  the  co-oper 
ation  of  the  navies  of  the  world  in  keeping  the 
seas  at  once  free  and  safe,  and  the  question  of 
limiting  naval  armaments  opens  the  wider,  and 
perhaps  more  difficult,  question  of  the  limitation 
of  armies  and  of  all  programmes  of  military 
preparation.  Difficult  and  delicate  as  these 
questions  are,  they  must  be  faced  with  the  ut 
most  candour  and  decided  in  a  spirit  of  real  ac 
commodation,  if  peace  is  to  come  with  healing 
in  its  wings,  and  come  to  stay.  Peace  cannot  be 
had  without  concession  and  sacrifice. 

There  can  be  no  sense  of  safety  and  equality 


268  President  Wilson 

among  the  nations  if  great  and  preponderating 
armaments  are  henceforth  to  continue  here  and 
there  to  be  built  up  and  maintained.  The 
statesmen  of  the  world  must  plan  for  peace 
and  nations  must  adjust  and  accommodate 
their  policy  to  it  as  they  have  planned  for  war 
and  made  ready  for  pitiless  contest  and  rivalry. 

The  question  of  armaments,  whether  on  land 
or  on  sea,  is  the  most  immediately  and  intensely 
practical  question  connected  with  the  future 
fortunes  of  nations  and  of  mankind. 

I  have  spoken  upon  these  great  matters 
without  reserve  and  with  the  utmost  explicit- 
ness,  because  it  has  seemed  to  me  to  be  neces 
sary  if  the  world's  yearning  for  peace  was 
anywhere  to  find  free  voice  and  utterance. 

Perhaps  I  am  the  only  person  in  high  au 
thority  amongst  all  the  peoples  of  the  world 
who  is  at  liberty  to  speak  and  hold  nothing 
back.  I  am  speaking  as  an  individual,  and  yet 
I  am  speaking  also,  of  course,  as  the  responsi 
ble  head  of  a  great  Government,  and  I  feel  con 
fident  that  I  have  said  what  the  people  of  the 
United  States  would  wish  me  to  say. 

May  I  not  add  that  I  hope  and  believe  that 
I  am  in  effect  speaking  for  liberals  and  friends 
of  humanity  in  every  nation  and  of  every  pro 
gramme  of  liberty?  I  would  fain  believe  that 
I  am  speaking  for  the  silent  mass  of  mankind 


War  269 

everywhere  who  have  yet  had  no  place  or  op 
portunity  to  speak  their  real  hearts  out  con 
cerning  the  death  and  ruin  they  see  to  have 
come  already  upon  the  persons  and  the  homes 
they  hold  most  dear. 

And  in  holding  out  the  expectation  that  the 
people  and  Government  of  the  United  States 
will  join  the  other  civilised  nations  of  the 
world  in  guaranteeing  the  permanence  of  peace 
upon  such  terms  as  I  have  named  I  speak  with 
the  greater  boldness  and  confidence  because  it 
is  clear  to  every  man  who  can  think  that  there 
is  in  this  promise  no  breach  in  either  our  tra 
ditions  or  our  policy  as  a  nation,  but  a  fulfil 
ment,  rather,  of  all  that  we  have  professed  or 
striven  for. 

I  am  proposing,  as  it  were,  that  the  nations 
should  with  one  accord  adopt  the  doctrine  of 
President  Monroe  as  the  doctrine  of  the  world: 
that  no  nation  should  seek  to  extend  its  polity 
over  any  other  nation  or  people,  but  that  every 
people  should  be  left  free  to  determine  its  own 
polity,  its  own  way  of  development,  unhin 
dered,  unthreatened,  unafraid,  the  little  along 
with  the  great  and  powerful. 

I  am  proposing  that  all  nations  henceforth 
avoid  entangling  alliances  which  would  draw 
them  into  competitions  of  power,  catch  them  in 
a  net  of  intrigue  and  selfish  rivalry,  and  dis- 


270  President  Wilson 

turb  their  own  affairs  with  influences  intruded 
from  without.  There  is  no  entangling  alliance 
in  a  concert  of  power.  When  all  unite  to  act 
in  the  same  sense  and  with  the  same  purpose 
all  act  in  common  interest  and  are  free  to  live 
their  own  lives  under  a  common  protection. 

I  am  proposing  government  by  the  consent 
of  the  governed;  that  freedom  of  the  seas 
which  in  international  conference  after  con 
ference  representatives  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  urged  with  the  eloquence 
of  those  who  are  the  convinced  disciples  of  lib 
erty  ;  and  that  moderation  of  armaments  which 
makes  of  armies  and  navies  a  power  for  order 
merely,  not  an  instrument  of  aggression  or  of 
selfish  violence. 

These  are  American  principles,  American 
policies.  We  could  stand  for  no  others.  And 
yet  they  are  the  principles  and  policies  of  for 
ward-looking  men  and  women  everywhere,  of 
every  modern  nation,  of  every  enlightened 
community.  They  are  the  principles  of  man 
kind  and  must  prevail. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

"These  are  American  principles,  American 
policies."  The  President  had  fitly  spoken,  for 
the  country  applauded  his  message.  The  na 
tion  recognised  his  profound  ideals,  thus  de- 


War  271 

fined  and  proclaimed  in  the  face  of  a  world 
dishonoured  by  massacre.  And,  in  making 
this  answer,  he  was  unable  to  measure  the  im 
mensity  and  the  nearness  of  the  sacrifices  these 
ideas  were  about  to  drag  from  him. 

The  next  step  followed  rapidly.  Perhaps 
President  Wilson  had  imagined  that  his  sol 
emn  declarations  might  be  a  warning  to  Ger 
many,  obliging  her  to  postpone  the  resumption 
of  submarine  war.  He  was  deceived.  His 
message  was  delivered  on  January  2ist.  On 
the  3  ist,  in  the  evening,  the  German  ambassa 
dor  presented  a  note  which  is  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  diplomatic  documents  of  our 
time.  At  first  unctuous  and  insipid,  then  bru 
tal,  it  is  a  clever  concoction  of  old  Germany 
and  Prussia.  The  German  Government  had 
studied  the  President's  message.  "It  is  pleas 
ing  to  state  that  the  main  lines  of  this  impor 
tant  manifestation  are  in  accord  with  the  prin 
ciples  and  desires  to  which  Germany  sub 
scribes."  And  the  author  of  the  note  com- 
plaisantly  cited  the  right  of  every  nation  to 
decide  its  own  destiny  and  to  receive  equal 
treatment,  the  opposition  to  any  system  of 
alliances,  the  liberty  of  the  seas,  and  the  policy 
of  an  open  door  to  the  commerce  of  all  coun 
tries.  He  promised  "the  joyful  collaboration 
of  the  German  Government  in  every  effort 


272  President  Wilson 

which  tended  towards  the  prevention  of  future 
wars.  Had  the  Government  not  once  already 
proposed  peace!  And  suddenly,  the  verbiage 
having  been  long  enough  drawn  out,  the  note 
concluded  with  a  revelation  of  its  meaning: 

"Before  humanity,  before  history,  and  be 
fore  its  own  conscience  the  Imperial  Govern 
ment  does  not  wish  to  take  the  responsibility 
of  renouncing  any  means,  whatever  they  may 
be,  of  hastening  the  end  of  the  war.  It  had 
hoped  to  be  able  to  attain  this  end  by  negoti 
ations  with  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
Our  adversaries  having  responded  to  this  con 
ciliatory  step  by  the  announcement  of  an  ag 
gravation  of  hostilities,  it  became  necessary 
for  the  Imperial  Government  to  continue  the 
struggle,  thus  newly  imposed  upon  it,  by  hav 
ing  recourse  to  all  their  arms,  if  they  would 
serve  the  high  ideal  of  humanity  and  hold 
themselves  blameless  towards  their  compa 
triots. 

"Consequently,  the  Imperial  Government  de 
cided  to  abolish  the  restrictions  that  it  had 
hitherto  imposed  in  the  use  of  its  means  of 
naval  warfare,  in  the  hope  that  the  American 
people  and  its  Government  would  understand 
the  causes  and  the  necessity  of  this  decision. 

"The  Imperial  Government  hopes  that  the 
United  States  will  judge  the  new  order  of 


War  273 

things  from  the  high  tribunal  of  impartiality, 
and  that,  on  their  side,  they  will  also  help  to 
prevent  further  evils  and  the  inevitable  sacri 
fice  of  human  life." 

Three  days  later,  on  February  3rd,  the  Pres 
ident  summoned  the  two  Houses  and  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  the  Capitol.  At 
two  o'clock  he  appeared  before  them.  He  re 
called  the  promise  he  had  obtained  from  Ger 
many  a  year  earlier.  He  recalled  the  declara 
tion  he  had  made,  that  if  Germany  broke  her 
engagement  the  United  States  would  have  no 
choice  but  to  sever  diplomatic  relations  with 
the  Government  of  the  German  Empire  alto 
gether.  Germany  had  broken  her  word.  The 
President  did  not  ask  Congress  to  sever  rela 
tionship  with  her.  He  had  already  done  so. 
"I,  therefore,  directed  the  Secretary  of  State 
to  announce  to  his  Excellenty  the  German 
Ambassador  that  all  diplomatic  relations  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  the  German  Em 
pire  are  severed  and  that  the  American  Ambas 
sador  in  Berlin  will  immediately  be  withdrawn, 
and  in  accordance  with  this  decision  to  hand  to 
his  Excellency  his  passports." 

The  Constitution  authorised  the  President 
to  decide  upon  a  diplomatic  rupture.  Thus  he 
was  able,  without  exceeding  his  powers,  to  en 
gage  the  nation  in  a  war  Congress  alone  had 


274  President  Wilson 

the  right  to  decree.  This  war  he  had  already 
predicted  and  shown  from  afar. 

"If  my  inveterate  confidence  in  the  discre 
tion  and  foresight  of  my  intentions  is  unhap 
pily  proved  to  be  without  foundation ;  if  Amer 
ican  ships  and  American  lives  should  in  fact 
be  sacrificed  by  German  naval  commanders  in 
heedless  contravention  of  the  just  and  reason 
able  understandings  of  international  law  and 
the  obvious  dictates  of  humanity,  I  shall  take 
the  liberty  of  coming  again  before  Congress  to 
ask  that  authority  be  given  to  me  to  use  any 
means  that  may  be  necessary  for  the  protection 
of  our  seamen  and  our  people  in  the  prosecu 
tion  of  their  peaceful  legitimate  errands  on  the 
high  seas." 

The  descent  into  war  was  certain.  Presi 
dent  Wilson,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the 
forces  on  land  and  sea,  armed  merchant  ships 
and  gave  each  one  military  protection.  He  is 
sued  instructions  that  they  were  to  fire  on  Ger 
man  submarines  without  allowing  them  time 
to  attack.  Germany  declared  that  these  armed 
guards  would  be  treated  as  irregulars,  and 
would  be  shot.  From  the  month  of  March  war 
existed  in  very  fact,  and  there  remained  noth 
ing  more  but  to  confirm  it  by  formal  vote. 

At  this  moment  the  authority  and  prestige 
of  the  President  were  at  their  highest.  The 


War  275 

solemnities  surrounding  the  renewal  of  his 
term  of  office  were  carried  out  amidst  great  na 
tional  enthusiasm.  In  accordance  with  custom, 
on  March  7th  he  appeared  on  the  steps  of  the 
Capitol  and  addressed  the  gigantic  crowd  surg 
ing  round  the  building. 

"Here,  in  your  midst,  I  stand  and  have  taken 
the  high  solemn  oath  to  which  you  have  been 
audience  because  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have  chosen  me  for  this  august  delega 
tion  of  power,  and  by  their  gracious  judgment 
have  named  me  their  leader  in  affairs.  I  know 
now  what  the  task  means.  I  realise  to  the  full 
the  responsibility  which  it  involves.  I  pray 
God  that  I  be  given  wisdom  and  prudence  to 
do  my  duty  in  the  true  spirit  of  this  great  peo 
ple.  I  am  their  servant,  and  can  succeed  only 
as  they  sustain  and  guide  me  by  their  confi 
dence  and  their  counsel. 

"The  thing  I  shall  count  upon  and  the  thing 
without  which  neither  counsel  nor  action  avail 
is  the  unity  of  America — an  America  united 
in  feeling,  in  purpose,  in  its  vision  of  duty  and 
its  opportunity  of  service. 

"We  have  to  beware  of  all  men  who  would 
turn  the  tasks  and  necessities  of  the  nation  to 
their  own  private  profit  or  use  them  for  the 
upbuilding  of  private  power.  Beware  that  no 
faction  or  disloyal  intrigue  break  the  harmony 


276  President  Wilson 

or  embarrass  the  spirit  of  our  people.  Beware 
that  our  Government  be  kept  pure  and  incor 
rupt  in  all  its  parts.  United  alike  in  the  con 
ception  of  our  duty  and  in  the  high  resolve  to 
perform  it  in  face  of  all  men,  let  us  dedicate 
ourselves  to  the  great  task  to  which  we  must 
now  set  our  hand. 

"For  myself  I  beg  your  tolerance,  your 
countenance,  your  united  aid.  The  shadows 
that  now  lie  dark  upon  our  path  will  soon  be 
dispelled.  We  shall  walk  with  light  all  about 
us  if  we  be  but  true  to  ourselves — to  ourselves 
as  we  have  wished  to  be  known  in  the  counsels 
of  the  world,  in  the  thought  of  all  those  who 
love  liberty,  justice,  and  right  exalted/' 

What  he  asked  for  now  he  was  sure  to  ob 
tain.  All  hearts  were  with  him.  On  April 
2nd  he  called  Congress  together  in  extraordi 
nary  session,  and  asked  for  a  vote  for  war : 

"Armed  neutrality,  it  now  appears,  is  im 
practicable.  Because  submarines  are  in  effect 
outlaws  when  used  as  the  German  submarines 
have  been  used  against  merchant  shipping,  it  is 
impossible  to  defend  ships  against  their  attacks 
as  the  law  of  nations  has  assumed  that  mer 
chantmen  would  defend  themselves  against 
privateers  or  cruisers,  visible  craft  giving  chase 
upon  the  open  sea.  It  is  common  prudence  in 
such  circumstances,  grim  necessity  indeed,  to 


War  277 

endeavour  to  destroy  them  before  they  have 
shown  their  own  intention.  They  must  be  dealt 
with  upon  sight,  if  dealt  with  at  all.  The  Ger 
man  Government  denies  the  right  of  neutrals 
to  use  arms  at  all  within  the  areas  of  the  sea 
which  it  has  proscribed,  even  in  the  defence  of 
rights  which  no  modern  publicist  has  ever  be 
fore  questioned  their  right  to  defend.  The  in 
timation  is  conveyed  that  the  armed  guards 
which  we  have  placed  on  our  merchant  ships 
will  be  treated  as  beyond  the  pale  of  law  and 
subject  to  be  dealt  with  as  pirates  would  be. 
Armed  neutrality  is  ineffectual  enough  at  best ; 
in  such  circumstances  and  in  the  face  of  such 
pretensions  it  is  worse  than  ineffectual;  it  is 
likely  only  to  produce  what  it  was  intended  to 
prevent;  it  is  practically  certain  to  draw  us 
into  the  war  without  either  the  rights  or  the 
effectiveness  of  belligerents.  There  is  one 
choice  we  cannot  make,  we  are  incapable  of 
making:  we  will  not  choose  the  path  of  sub 
mission  and  suffer  the  most  sacred  rights  of 
our  nation  and  our  people  to  be  ignored  or  vio 
lated.  The  wrongs  against  which  we  now  ar 
ray  ourselves  are  no  common  wrongs:  they 
cut  to  the  very  roots  of  human  life. 

"With  a  profound  sense  of  the  solemn  and 
even  tragical  character  of  the  step  I  am  taking 
and  of  the  grave  responsibilities  which  it  in- 


278  President  Wilson 

volves,  but  in  unhesitating  obedience  to  what 
I  deem  my  constitutional  duty,  I  advise  that  the 
Congress  declare  the  recent  course  of  the  Im 
perial  German  Government  to  be  in  fact  noth 
ing  less  than  war  against  the  government  and 
people  of  the  United  States;  that  it  formally 
accept  the  status  of  belligerent  which  has  thus 
been  thrust  upon  it ;  and  that  it  take  immediate 
steps  not  only  to  put  the  country  in  a  more  thor 
ough  state  of  defence  but  also  to  exert  all  its 
power  and  employ  all  its  resources  to  bring  the 
Government  of  the  German  Empire  to  terms 
and  end  the  war." 

In  addition  the  President  asked  for  an  allo 
cation  of  credit  on  behalf  of  the  Powers  al 
ready  in  conflict  with  Germany,  the  placing  of 
the  fleet  on  a  war  footing,  the  economic  mobil 
isation  of  national  resources  and  labour,  and 
an  immediate  increase  of  the  army.  He  asked 
for  500,000  recruits  upon  the  principle  of  uni 
versal  obligatory  service.  But  what  he  did  not 
ask  for,  what  he  did  not  say  in  actual  words, 
he  allowed  to  be  understood.  In  the  continua 
tion  of  his  speech  he  said,  "We  must  help  the 
Powers  warring  against  Germany."  (He  al 
ways  avoided  calling  them  the  Allied  Powers 
— but  perhaps  the  word  is  not  important.) 
Then  he  added,  and  in  reproducing  the  phrase 


War  279 

the  press  underlined  it,  "These  Powers  are  in 
the  field.  We  must  help  them  in  every  man 
ner  that  can  be  effective." 

The  deed  was  done.  We  need  not  tell  the 
story  of  the  resistance,  the  parliamentary 
manoeuvres  always  being  resumed  and  always 
being  disappointed.  We  need  not  attempt  to 
analyse  the  war  organisation  which  added  to 
the  already  immense  powers  of  the  President, 
associating  him  with  the  technical  councils 
which  already  held  considerable  authority. 
The  facts  are  not  yet  at  the  disposition  of  the 
historian.  A  moment  must  be  given  to  that 
afternoon  of  June  I4th  when  the  President 
celebrated  "Flag  Day"  in  the  presence  of  the 
people.  A  policeman  had  to  hold  an  umbrella 
over  his  head  as  he  spoke,  for  it  was  raining. 
Yet  his  speech  was  so  ardent  that  the  crowd 
was  deeply  impressed.  He  wished  them  to 
know  exactly  where  they  were  going,  warned 
them  that  they  were  engaged  in  the  most  for 
midable  of  fights. 

"My  Fellow  Citizens: 

"We  meet  to  celebrate  Flag  Day  because  this 
flag  which  we  honour  and  under  which  we 
serve  is  the  emblem  of  our  unity,  our  power, 
our  thought  and  purpose  as  a  nation.  It  has 


280  President  Wilson 

no  other  character  than  that  which  we  give  it 
from  generation  to  generation.  The  choices 
are  ours.  It  floats  in  majestic  silence  above 
the  hosts  that  execute  those  choices,  whether 
in  peace  or  in  war.  And  yet,  though  silent,  it 
speaks  to  us — speaks  to  us  of  the  past,  of  the 
men  and  women  who  went  before  us  and  of  the 
records  they  wrote  upon  it.  We  celebrate  the 
day  of  its  birth;  and  from  its  birth  until  now 
it  has  witnessed  a  great  history,  has  floated  on 
high  the  symbol  of  great  events,  of  a  great 
plan  of  life  worked  out  by  a  great  people.  We 
are  about  to  carry  it  into  battle,  to  lift  it  where 
it  will  draw  the  fire  of  our  enemies.  We  are 
about  to  bid  thousands,  hundreds  of  thousands, 
it  may  be  millions,  of  our  men,  the  young,  the 
strong,  the  capable  men  of  the  nation,  to  go 
forth  and  die  beneath  it  on  fields  of  blood  far 
away — for  what?  For  some  unaccustomed 
thing?  For  something  for  which  it  has  never 
sought  the  fire  before?  American  armies 
were  never  before  sent  across  the  seas.  Why 
are  they  sent  now?  For  some  purpose,  for 
which  this  great  flag  has  never  been  carried 
before,  or  for  some  old,  familiar,  heroic  pur 
pose  for  which  it  has  seen  men,  its  own  men, 
die  on  every  battlefield  upon  which  Americans 
have  borne  arms  since  the  Revolution?  .  .  ." 


War  281 

Again  the  President  defined  the  cause  the 
United  States  were  defending.  He  finished 
with  a  promise  and  a  threat. 

'Tor  us  there  is  but  one  choice.  We  have 
made  it.  Woe  be  to  the  man  or  group  of  men 
that  seeks  to  stand  in  our  way  in  this  day  of 
high  resolution  when  every  principle  we  hold 
dearest  is  to  be  vindicated  and  made  secure  for 
the  salvation  of  the  nations.  We  are  ready  to 
plead  at  the  bar  of  history,  and  our  flag  shall 
wear  a  new  lustre.  Once  more  we  shall  make 
good  with  our  lives  and  fortunes  the  great  faith 
to  which  we  were  born,  and  a  new  glory  shall 
shine  in  the  face  of  our  people." 

Woe  be  to  the  man  who  seeks  to  stand  in  our 
way!  Many  liberals,  until  then  eager  in  their 
support  of  the  President,  disliked  this  threat, 
and  did  not  hide  their  censure.  The  President 
left  them  to  their  talk.  He  knew  better  than 
these  enthusiastic  but  weak  critics  the  task  he 
had  undertaken.  Exercised  by  power  and  devel 
oped  by  responsibility  his  spirit  penetrated  a 
future  still  shrouded  in  shadow.  He  was  able 
to  imagine  the  unprecedented  sacrifices  he  was 
about  to  exact,  the  opposition,  the  crises,  the 
anarchist  anger,  he  would  be  compelled  to 
break.  The  conquering  Lincoln  fell  under  the 


282  President  Wilson 

bullet  of  a  fanatic,  as  the  President  well  knew. 
He  was  better  qualified  than  any  of  the  lib 
erals  to  measure  the  formidable  problem  of  al 
lowing  a  young,  fresh,  and  passionate  nation 
to  enter  the  sanguinary  arena.  With  full 
knowledge  he  assumed  the  task.  But,  to  carry 
it  through,  he  had  to  call  for  the  exercise  of 
every  one  of  his  rights. 

He  obtained  them.  In  September,  Congress 
adjourned,  after  having  long  resisted  and  pro 
longed  its  debates.  President  Wilson  now 
stood  alone.  He  was  head  of  the  armies  on 
land  and  on  sea,  dictator  of  production  and 
consumption,  absolute  master  over  every  bat 
tle  and  of  all  labour.  His  powers  of  action 
were  of  the  widest  and  the  law  itself  sanctioned 
his  decrees.  "It  has  taken  four  months  to 
clear  the  decks/'  wrote  the  North  American 
Review  in  September,  1917.  "They  are  cleared 
now.  Despite  the  haggling  and  hobbling  of  a 
Congress  unwilling  to  invoke  cloture  to  make 
effective  the  will  of  a  majority,  despite  the 
hundred  days  of  futile  debate  upon  a  single  bill 
imposed  by  a  few  wilful  men  under  sinister 
leadership  of  extraordinary  skill,  the  true 
theory  of  undivided,  masterful  direction  in  war 
has  finally  prevailed,  and  the  President  holds 
in  the  hollow  of  his  hands  the  full  power  which 


War  283 

should  have  been  his  from  the  beginning, — a 
power  infinitely  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
living  ruler  and  unsurpassed  by  that  of  Alex 
ander  or  of  Napoleon." 

In  this  manner  the  entire  nation  viewed  the 
leader  it  had  elected  as  its  head.  "Now  he  is 
free,"  ran  the  word  in  clubs,  streets,  news 
papers,  homes,  "the  war  will  be  won/' 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


lOJuI'STJC     1 

1 

IN  STACKS 

JUL    51962 

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REC'D  LD! 

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LD  21-100m-6,'56 
(B9311slO)476 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


JUL  13  w* 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


*** 


